The Man Behind the Mask
by Awesome Bill From Dawsonville
Summary: Following the mission on Kamino, the crew of the Ghost has traded one foe for another, treacherous Tyber Zann for the Unstoppable killing machine grown by the Empire with the sole purpose to destroy the Empire's enemies, but even The Empire can not control this being and now the Rebels have inadvertently brought it to Lothal. Now they must stop it. Sequel to Underworld.
1. Prologue

A/N: Okay, here is the sequel to Underworld, which if you are reading this, you do need to read that story first. This chapter isn't very long, it just meant to serve as a set up for the story and get the ball rolling.

Discalimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm

Prologue

"What a life." Grell muttered to himself and he tromped along the path to his home, or at least what passed for a home. He had just come off a double shift at the processing planet he worked at and was ready to pass out from exhaustion.

He had lived on Lothol his entire life and coming up on his fortieth birthday, was wishing he had mad better choices in his life. His youth had been misguided and poorly supervised, and he wished he had put more effort into making something better for himself.

That was before the Empire, and before the hostile occupation of Lothol and while he never had considered Lothol a paradise, Imperial presence had increased hardships to new levels. His current job was exactly what his father had told him all these job's were, miserable and paying less than it was worth but just enough to keep him crawling back for more.

Turning a corner, Grell continued to brood, in part due to the fact he knew he wasn't really that bad off. In fact he made fairly decent money, but the work was absolutely grueling in comparison to many others, so while the pay was decent the work load was incredibly harsh, and it irked him that his supervisor simply say in his office all day and made three times what he did.

Grell was so caught up in his obsession with his lot in life, he didn't even notice anything was wrong with the door to his apartment as he entered. He in fact didn't notice anything amiss until he got to his bedroom. The door to his closet was open. This alone would not of been out of the ordinary, but the fact that the door had been ripped off the track it ran on was.

Grell's mind started to run wild. His first thought was of the killer that still alluded the authorities. A giant of a man with the strength of a Rancor if you believed the stories, completely immune to blaster fire.

The moment of terror quickly gave way to his rational mind. That man, was last seen miles away, and there was no reason for him to invaded Grell's home, he had nothing of worth to steal, and he hadn't done anything to incur the wrath of anyone, well at least anything that would warrant his murder.

No, this was the work of a more common criminal, like a thief or addict. He'd just have to report the break in and wait for the authorities to not do anything about.

Grell turned to leave his room to make the report, only to be greeted by a towering figure in a mask. Before he could even scream Grell's head was rolling on the floor.

* * *

"This murder is also believed to be the work of the serial killer now dubbed by the public as "The Shape." do too often being described by the few witnesses who catch a glimpse of him only ever managed to describe him as such. Again we warn to public to stay..."

Sabine cut off the news feed, she couldn't take it anymore. JVFR13, or as he was now known on Lothol "The Shape." had now killed nineteen people sense arriving on Lothol. She couldn't bare this much longer, this was at least partially their fault, and more her's than anyone else's. If they hadn't gone chasing after a cure for her condition, that thing never would of been let out and they most certainly never of dragged him back to Lothol with them.

Looking again at the Mandalorian Iron helmet she had taken from the lab, she felt and urge to try and stop the thing on her own. But she knew on her own, or even with all of them together, they could kill JVFR13, the Empire had truly created a monster in that lab. Unstoppable, unkillable and single mindedly geared towards murder.

Running her finger along the scratch mark the machete had made on the helmet, Sabine found herself wondering what had happened to the original owner. She found this thought creeping into her mind more often as time went on, as she sunk more and more of her time in the helmet to distract her from the horror she felt responsible for bringing to the planet.

Was the owner of this helmet another casualty of that lab? Or was it more mundane in how the Empire attained it. Again this brought her thought's back to the lab and all the horrible feeling it entailed.

Again she was overcome with a desire to hunt down "The Shape.", but Kanan and Hera were both adamant in their refusal to any plan of action that couldn't insure a reasonable amount of success. Hera poured over Tyber's data pad in an attempt to figure out some weakness. So far they hadn't found anything that gave them more information than what the doctor who created him had said, his only real short coming seemed to be an apparent lack of higher brain function, which even Sabine was now uncertain of, that thing had shown intent in its action and even planning.

No, they weren't going to be able to deal with it until they had something else to deal with him, which in Sabine's opinion would be more fire power, more manpower or both.

Flipping the news feedback on without even thinking, Sabine was not pleased to see the coverage was still on "The Shape". She expected for the coverage to be extensive, give the horror of the situation, but the interest level in it seemed to be boarding on the macabre.

Not for the first time she wondered on the name the public had given JVFR13, "The Shape." granted it was quickrt to say the JVFR13, but she didn't like the name. Ezra had openly said he thought it was stupid, and she thought he had the right of it, but probably not for the same reason as Ezra.

Ezra didn't think the name did JVFR13 justice, he had personally voice the opinion that something like "The Butcher" or "Lothol Lacerater" were more appropriate. Sabine however was of the opinion that naming it something like "The Shape" increased the level of unknown aura about it, and was more likely to make the thing more likely to develop a type of mythos about it that were common when people were facing something they didn't understand. While the people needed to known this thing was running about and a threat, she didn't think they needed to make it even more terrifying by making up their own stories about it.

So far Sabine had heard that "The Shape" could conjure a mist that it could walk into an disappear and then reappear where ever it wanted. Another that it could control the weather and call down lighting. Stories like these did nothing to help the public and only served to increase panic, and if they had named him something like "The Butcher" he would of been terrifying still, but she thought it might of lead to less speculation on the subject.

Sighing to herself again, Sabine started to once again work on fixing the helmet.

* * *

A/N: Okay, shorter than most of my chapters, but it's just the prologue, all future chapter's will be longer.

Also, tell me what you think of the "Name" I have given JVFR13, I'm not too sure on the choice, I'm willing to change it if someone gives me one I like more, but this one is also a reference to a movie that serves as partial inspiration, I'm wondering if anyone can catch it.

Well, at any rate please review.


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N:Okay this the first real chapter and as promised it is longer than the prologue.**

 **I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed** **AzulaBlue92, lchichi05** **, WindPardoxRune and Classic Cowbay. It's nice to know my work is being read and enjoyed and it's great knowing I have loyal readers. Not only do your reviews motivate me to write but they genuinely help me with the thinking process. Sometimes I'm reading reviews and one of you will say something that gets me thinking and it launchers as whole story from it. So not only are your reviews appreciated but they truly do help.**

 **Also, in my previous story I had contests for readers to try and win a spot for their OC's in my story. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that with this one, but tell what you think, would you like more contests?**

 **Anyway onto the story.**

 **Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm**

* * *

Chapter 1

All he saw was red, the world stained in red. Every being drove him to end their lives, for he knew in the very heart of his soul, they were responsible for the fire in him, the burning that engulf his very bones, to the very core of his entire being.

They ran from him, clearly scared of receiving their recompense for what they had done to him. They begged, at least the ones who saw him coming, but they had set fire to his mind and soul, leaving him in eternal agony, for he knew his pain would never end, he was dammed to wonder the world for all time, but he'd make as many of them pay as he could, they would pay.

The voices could not deter him, the man and the woman, trying to force his action, direct him but they couldn't stop him. The woman was kinder and more compassionate, but feebler in force mostly sounding like a whisper. The man was more cruel and forceful, but as much as he railed against the voice of the man, he had managed to sway his action. Not control, never control, he could not be truly controlled, but he could lead him to those most deserving of punishment.

The burning came again, this time almost to terrible to handle. It was time for another hunt, another judgment to pass out. The voices had gone silent for now, their directions to be ignored for tonight.

* * *

"This is so screwed up Kanan." Hera muttered more to herself than Kanan as she sifted through the information Tyber had stolen.

"What did you find now?" Kanan asked not really sure that he wanted and answer. Many of the experiments done on the station were sick. But the JV-FR13 experiments were particularly disturbing to read about. The scientist in charge had tried dozens of experiments in his search for an indestructible soldier. Some attempts had included attempts at growing a soldier, like the clone troopers of the Clone Wars, other's had been experimentation on actual subjects, normally convicts. Almost every case resulted in the death of the subject, and the manner of death was never quite.

"The thing running around out there, I keep finding more information on it, and none of it really is going to help us stop him." She took a deep breath, "But what they did to him, Kanan, I think there is a legitimate chance that he's insane."

Kanan didn't need a scientific study to tell him "The Shape" was at the very least mentally unstable, and probably not capable of being reasoned with. "How does that help us Hera?"

"Well, it helps us understand him a little. And at the very least, we can forget about any plan to try and make a pattern or predict his movements."

Again Kanan didn't need anyone to tell him this. This thing was killing at random, civilians and Imperials alike. "So what do we know so far. His base line genetic code is Human, but he's been spliced with the genes of several other species, giving him his strength, durability and regenerative abilities." And Kanan had been correct in assuming the theirs was Indeed Zillo beast in the genetic code, although these traits only appeared in hard tissue.

"But Kanan, that's the thing, that many different genetic codes, so many different no-related species, that shouldn't be possible. He shouldn't be alive, if he was grown...well they never should of been able to splice the different genes together like that and grow him like the clones. And if they spliced the genes into another subject, well it should of killed him."

Kanan already knew all this. But he suspected something worse was involved in the creatures creation. He could sense something lingering around it, a disturbance in the force. The creature itself wasn't particularly strong in the force, at best Kanan thought it might just be more sensitive to force disturbances than others. No something else was lurking behind the thing, and the odd thing was, Kanan didn't think it was malicious. It had, as far as he could tell it was trying to warn them whenever it was near.

Not for the first time Kanan wished he had a chance to properly finish his training. A full Knight or Master may of made more sense of it than he could. But he couldn't dwell on this, there was nothing for it now, he didn't have much of a chance of ever meeting another member of the order who could give him some more insight.

Getting back to the subject at hand Kanan continued on with Hera. "So no weakness we can exploit?"

"Not in terms of an actual physical weakness no, at least not in any means readily available. But I keep coming across the notes Dr. Cooper left, and he keeps trying to fixed JV-FR13 low intelligence. While I think the Doctor severally underestimated his intelligence, he did appear to be right on a single minded ferocity he displayed. Once he set's on a track almost nothing will stop it."

"Maybe we can work with that, set a trap, contain him at least until we can figure out what to do with him."

* * *

Ezra was running down and abandoned street, it was after him, relentless, unstoppable and indestructible. It didn't even flinch with his strongest attacks, his light saber might as well stick for all the good it did him.

Panting, he came to a stop, looked around and ducked down an ally. Finding some crate to hind behind, Ezra kneeled down and peered around the corner, and watched the street, his heart pounding so hard he was certain it would give him away.

Then the thing walked past, the mouth of the alley, it didn't even turn to look. The mask it wore, Ezra was certain made it harder for it to see out of its peripheral vision. JV-FR13 or "The Shape" as the media had taken to calling him, stalked past slowly, not in any clear hurry to reach its target.

As it passed, Ezra sighed a breath of relief. Standing he turned to look down the alley way to make sure there was nothing there. After satisfying himself there was nothing to follow him or give him away, he turned to head back to the street and double around.

The next thing he felt was the vice like grip on his throat, slamming him into the wall. It was come back, and it looked like it was examining him. Ezra was kicking hitting it where ever he could, but for all the good it did he might as well of tired spit on him. Reaching up he grabbed the mask, and pulled.

It came off and feel to the ground, Ezra shocked with what he saw. Instead of the malformed creature he had seen in the tank, was the face of Tyber Zann.

Shocked and even more scared, Ezra continued to rail against his attack. Then it spoke.

"You killed me Ezra, left me to die, now I've come to return the favor." Zann's cool and collected voice whisper in his ear. Raising the blade and bringing it down Ezra screamed.

Waking with a start, Ezra whipped the cold sweat from his forehead. This dream had been coming more and more often. He hadn't told anyone, not even Kanan. He didn't need to tell anyone to get help understanding what it meant. He was deeply regretting his action's now, but at the same time, he still didn't feel like he had made the wrong choice. Zann was dangerous, and deserved what he got, but he still felt a burning guilt over it, and that was why it was torturing him.

He felt like he had done the right thing intellectually, but emotionally and even spiritually, he felt his actions were wrong. He could reconcile the two conflicting feelings and it was horrible. Part of what made it even harder was he couldn't talk to anyone about, or rather he didn't dare do it out of fear of their reactions for what he did. Part of him wanted to believe they would understand why he had done what he done, but another part of him was terrified if they didn't.

He felt trapped and he only recourse was silence and hoping he would learn to live with it.

* * *

"Almost...and...their!" Sabine exclaimed to no one at all, given she now sate in her room alone. She had finally finished fixing the helmet's circuit's and power source. It felt good, finally being able to fix something, even if it was something trivial as a piece of equipment.

Putting the helmet on, which did not fit properly but wasn't so large that she wouldn't be able to test some of the features this helmet had. The HUD was different from her own and confirmed what she had suspected when fixing it. This helmet had far more bells and whistles than the standard Mandalorian helmet.

This one had multiple visions modes, and she flipped through them she wished she had some of them on her own helmet, it would certainly help to have a variety options available in certain situation where vision may be obstructed. It even had built it scanners of a very sophisticated quality for to be found in a piece of equipment. Looking around the cabin, it started scanning and giving her very detailed information on her own equipment. It gave her Intel on her blasters and armor, including weak points and max fire limit.

Taking the helmet off she looked at it again, wondering who it had belonged to. It was Mandalorian Iron and fitted with top of the line equipment. Who every it was had likely been a very high ranking member in his clan or a very successful mercenary to be able to afford such equipment.

But he or she had lost it, probably been killed and had their body looted. It was not a pleasant thought, not a pleasant thought at all.

* * *

Unknown to Sabine, she had sent a single to an unknown ship when she had powered on the helmet and it was currently transmitting all the data she was scanning to it.

The pilot of the ship smirked to himself as he watched the video feed. "I knew you were out there, I've got you know, nowhere to run."

* * *

For everything that happened, Zeb was feeling surprisingly good. While he hated the helplessness he felt with the "Shape", for everything they had been through, all they had done recently, he thought they should feel pretty good. They had destroyed an Imperial target far beyond anything they had ever done before and they had all made it out alive, as long as you didn't count Tyber, and Zeb didn't count Tyber.

Zeb was frankly glad that the man was gone. He was a sick and dangerous man, and frankly Zeb was scared of him. Not in the way he was scared on "The Shape", not in what he could do to him physically, but it how he could mask his true self, and had nearly tricked Zeb into thinking he was something he wasn't. He remembered the whole "shopping" trip with him for food and how he has acted friendly and even charming, then later that day turned vicious and brutal.

It scared him that someone could so wholly trick him, and it unnerved him that he was so blind to his real nature.

No, he was glad he was gone. He just wished Ezra and Sabine would come around to his way of thinking. Sabine was the more understandable of the two. What Tyber had done to her was bound to have long lasting affects, it may never go away, the influence of the drug. Ezra was less easy to understand, although he thought maybe that seeing a man killed by that thing may of traumatized him. It was one thing to see someone being taken down with a blaster bolt, quite another to see them cut to piece with a solid blade.

He had tried to cheer them up in whatever way he could, Kanan and Hera were near completely absorbed in their research.

Today, he hoped to get both Ezra and Sabine to enjoy themselves, under the pre-text of a supplies run, he was taking them into town. They didn't need them supplies and the market was by no means the best place to have a good time, it was better than sitting in the ship alone with their misery.

* * *

Zeb could tell that the trip was bad idea almost from the onset. Ezra had always, prior to the whole Zann incident, tried to talked to Sabine, impress her and basically make a fool out of himself, which Zeb always found highly amusing. Now he just looked absent mindedly from the back seat of the speeder not even looking at Sabine.

Sabine was in a similar mood, but instead just stared at the helmet she had taken from the facility. It had become an obsession for her, and while Zeb understood the need for a hobby, but this couldn't be health.

He was so preoccupied with his thoughts , he didn't notice until it was too late. The explosion flipped the speeder sending all three flying.

* * *

Ezra was on his feet faster than Sabine or Zeb and had his lightsaber ready. He was scanning the area for the attacker with his eyes and with his feelings. He had been so caught up in his thoughts he hadn't sensed the attack coming.

Before he could get his wits about him however something big and heavy crashed into his back, sending his tumbling back to the ground. Rolling over out of the way he barely avoid several blaster shot. Turning to face his attacker, for one heart pounding second he only saw a shape through the dust and smoke, a large hulking figure, and he understood why the media had dubbed JV-FR13 "The Shape", and was certain it had found him. But then his logical thinking caught up with him, this attacker was using blasters, that thing never used any sophisticated weapons.

As the area cleared and Ezra could see the figure more clearly, he could tell it was wearing Mandalorian armor, and was probably a good head shorter than JV-FR13. Calmed in the fact he knew he was facing a mortal man, he managed to intercept the next shot fired from the attack. They didn't bounce back but dispersed, they were stunners. He was trying to subdue them, not kill them.

Before Ezra could make he own counter attack, Sabine appeared out of nowhere and opened fire on the unknown Mandalorian.

The big man was lifted into the air by a jetpack Ezra hadn't been able to see behind his large frame. Using his elevated advantage he fired down on them, but Ezra dispersed all the stunners with his lightsaber and Sabine fired back, but the big man weaved through the air dodged her blasts.

Then, the unknown assailant tossed something at Ezra. Expecting a grenade, he reached out with the force and caught it, only for it to explode. The last thing Ezra remembered was a blinding flash of light.

* * *

Sabine covered her eye's as the flash bag went off and knocked Ezra to the ground. He should of either run or thrown the explosive away, not catch it with the force and hold it out in front of him.

Before she could make her move against the unknown attacker, he was upon her and a deep, gravelly vocie came from the helmet. "Where is he?"

Not responding, Sabine tried to bring her blaster's up to open fire, but with a speed she wasn't expecting for a man his size, he grabbed both her wrists and twisted her arms, making her drop her blasters.

"Don't make me ask again lovely."

Trying to think with the figure bearing down on her, she saw something moving behind the attacker. The Attakcer seemed to notice her eyes moving and turned, just in time to have Zeb's staff crack him across his masked face causing him to reel.

Breaking free Sabine took the opportunity while he was distracted to kick him as hard as she could between the legs.

The man let out a grunt and buckled over in pain. Zeb followed up with a haymaker which, sent the man sprawling on the ground.

* * *

"Ezra, wake up." he heard from some far away voice. Opening his eye he saw Sabine and Zeb standing over him. His eyes were sore and he felt like his head was in a vice.

"Did we get him?"

They both looked over their shoulder then back to Ezra "Oh yeah, we got him."

Ezra sat up and saw the Mandalorian who had attacked them on his knees with his arms bound behind his back. "Let me guess, bounty hunter?"

"Well you're probably right, but he's not exactly cooperative." Zeb said huffing in annoyance.

"Hey, you all done chatting or are you gonna let me up so I can take a piss!" the man shouted over to them.

"Yeah he's a real charmer." Sabine sighed to herself. "He was looking for someone, I asked who but he wasn't talking, he keep saying he knew he was her though."

Ezra immediately thought of Kanan, who was certain to have a bounty on his head by being a Jedi alone, never mind a major figure in a group in open rebellion.

"Well let's see if we can't get him to be more cooperative." Ezra said standing up and walking to the man.

As he neared Ezra got a better look at the man, now that his helmet was off. He couldn't of been much older than Sabine, but his black hair was already thinning and he had a fairly pronounced receding hair line. He looked like he had shave for a few days making his look fairly haggard.

But the most defining feature on his was burn scar the appeared to run from his neck to just above his right eye, dominating the right side of his face.

"Who are you looking for?" Ezra said trying to sound more intimidating than he really felt.

"Ask your pretty little friend over there." he said gruff and irritated voice nodding towards Sabine. "She'll known him, he's one of us."

Sabine's eye's went wide ""You're looking for a Mandalorian!"

He smirked at her, showing four copper teeth. "Don't play dumb lovely, you have to know where he is, the tracker unit in his equipment brought be right to you, even caught a few glimpse of ya on his video feed."

Sabine's face went red as she realized that the helmet she had been tinkering with had been giving a live feed from inside the ship once she had fixed it. In a combination of embarrassment, and rage she shouted."Whoever he is he's not with us, it's just his helmet you muscle bound moron, you flew across the galaxy chasing a ghost."

The man's face fell quickly, but the shadow of the smile still graced it. "Your kindin right? Your havin' me on." But a quick look at all of them told him they weren't, and as if to seal the deal Sabine produced the helmet. Then his face formed a scowl and he spit on the ground.

"Then let me up, if I'm not gonna find him here, I'm gonna be neddin' to see to other affair."

Ezra let out a bark of laughter "You attacked us, nearly killed, why in the galaxy would we let you go?"

"Okay drama queen, I didn't nearly kill you, non-lethal only, nothing permanent, don't see what the big fuss is."

"You're and idiot." Ezra said.

"You have my word I won't attack you if you let me go. Come one if this really is a dead end, I need to get back on the job, nice fat bounty to be had here, good way to make up for the comin' here."

Ezra immediately thought of Kanan, and asked "Who?"

The man laughed "You been livin' under a rock? There's a killer on the loose mate "The Shape" their callin him, Killin' Imperail's and Civilians, the Moff council just okayed a huge reward for his capture."

Zeb, Sabine and Ezra looked at each other, this man was formidable enough, to be sure, but JV-FR13 would surly kill him.

* * *

This man was after whoever this helmet belonged to, she wondered if he knew where it had been when she found it, she doubted it, but it also peaked her curiosity on who this helmet belonged to.

"Your in luck, we want that killer taken care of as well, maybe we can help you." Sabine said stepping forward, but the man scowled at this "You can keep the bounty all for yourself, we just want him gone and we have some information that might be useful."

"Okay lovely." he said smirking at her "Let me up and we can... cooperate." and as is to ass an exclamation point to his sentence he made a kissing expression towards her and winked.

Without missing a beat Sabine balled her fist and punched him as hard as she could in the face with a loud crack."Don't do that again."

He started laughing and spit out a glob of blood "I like you girly."

Ignoring him she turned Ezra and Zeb, who looked unsure of letting the bounty hunter go. The hunter apparently caught onto this and said "Look, I ain't gonna try anything, I need that intel on this fella to track him and catch. Just untie me and we can get to work on it."

"We ain't untying you...yet." Zeb said pulling him to his feet."We're gonna talk to Kanan about this first Sabine." then he pushed the hunter to make him walk "It's a long walked back, and you blew up our only transport, hope you like walkin' buddy."

* * *

Despite his protests the hunter started the slog back with the rebels. After a few minutes of silence Sabine asked the first of two questions she really wanted answered.

"What's you name bounty hunter." she said raising her eye brow.

He snorted and said "Dral Rahm"

"Okay Dral, who are you looking for." she said holding up the helmet to emphasize the point

"Just some old washed up Mando named Atin Wren." he said not breaking a step, not noticing Sabine stopping dead in her tracks "Thought the man drank himself after his wife died, but there are people looking for him still, guess he knows something important."

Sabine had stopped listening at the name drop and stared at the helmet with the long gash in it. Her father's helmet, at that facility, what had happened to him?

* * *

 **A/N:Okay end of the first real chapter. tell me what you think.**


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Okay next chapter is up, no long note this story, just like the thank the people who review, who are the same four as the last time, so at least I have some loyal readers. Thanks guys I truly appreciate it.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 2

This man did not know how to shut up was the impression he was getting from Dral Rahm. The entire walk back he didn't stop his ramblings from subjects that varied from how he wanted to be untied, how they got lucky in their capture of him, asking Sabine out after he finished with "The Shape", and a larger variety of subjects Ezra didn't care to think about.

Sabine had thoroughly ignored him ever sense she asked him her two questions. The name drop was hard to miss, Atin Wren. It had to be a member of her family, which Ezra now realized, she never spoke about to anyone.

But she wasn't just ignoring Dral though, she was barely responding to him or Zeb when they tried to engage her in conversations.

"I'll tell ya, this sucka' ain't gonna know what him, I can trap anything." Dral boasted loudly, shifting his gaze towards the rebels, who were all walking behind him, keeping an eye on him.

Ezra himself did not think much of bringing this guy along, he was all for leaving him in the grass field they had encountered him. But it was his job to hunt and capture dangerous individuals, so maybe he could bring something to the table, they were good at stealing and blowing things up, but out right capture or elimination of a target had never been their modus operandi, they weren't bounty hunters of assassins.

Still he was loud, annoying, crass and unimaginably arrogant for a man being marched to an unknown location with his arms tied behind his back. He also was pretty sure he hadn't bathed in a significant amount of time, he was unshaven and Ezra thought he could smell something distinctly unpleasant about him.

Frankly Ezra has had enough of allowing outsiders into the group, Zann was a singularly bad experience and his hired muscle was not an overtly pleasant experience either. If it were up to him, this wouldn't of gone past the failed ambush.

* * *

Well this was not going at all how he planned. Dral had planned to find Wren and bring him in for the reward the Hutts had placed on his head for reason's Dral himself neither know about or really cared to. The fact that the man had been thought dead for so long hadn't lead to a drop in the bounty, the Hutt's wouldn't let anything go by their very nature.

Dral had made hunting him something of a hobby, always on the lookout for him. He had the equipment to track him where ever he was, and brining him in when no one else could, well that wouldn't exactly hurt his reputation either. But the situation had back fired on him spectacularly, he ended up chasing a ghost and got himself captured.

Truth be told he hadn't seriously planned on going after the "Shape" when he had arrived on world. From all accounts the man was a highly dangerous maniac with no sense of remorse and apparently very well protected as several accounts told him the man tanked a large number of blaster rounds without any real affect on him. No he didn't need that much of a head ach, but now he had to make something out of the trip, and the fact that these locals would be more likely to let him go if they thought he had plans to remove the killer.

But Dral had always prided himself on his ability to roll with life's punches and adapt when things went south, which was more often than not.

The group he had attacked was a boring lot, and any attempt try and draw them into a conversation or get a rise out of them was meet with silence, or at most a grunt or single word. But if they had information on the "Shape", it was worth giving them a visit, might make the job easier. He was fairly certain if he wanted he could make an escape, maybe a sixty forty split in his favor, but that was still fairly close to it not going his way, and given his luck today, he wasn't about the test his luck again, besides he'd lose that information.

Their ship came into sight but given the flat area, it was still some time before they actually got to it. The young boy, Ezra he thought he was called went in to get whom he assumed their leader.

* * *

Kanan just about hit the roof when he found out that Ezra, Zeb and Sabine had dragged another person of ill-repute to the ship. Tyber had been a singularly disastrous experience and he doubted a bounty hunter would be any better. What's more Kanan didn't doubt for a second that the man would try to claim the bounty on their heads.

But he had learned to trust is crew mates decisions, they would never do anything to intentionally endanger the group, and they were all generally excellent decision makers on tough choices. But he was thinking, getting a look at the man, that maybe this time the other's may of made a poor decision.

Kanan wouldn't judge a person on how they looked, but the expression on his face did not convey a sense of confidence in him. He looked like a hundred other smug thugs Kanan had seen in his life. Then there was the fact that this man had a great deal of mileage on his body. He was younger than Kanan, close to Sabine age if he had to guess, but his face look prematurely aged and had a large burn on the right side of his face that looked like it had never healed properly.

"So." he began approaching the bounty hunter "You're going to go after the "Shape" and claim the bounty."

Dral smirked "That's right, I'm gonna hunt him down, take him in, and you have some information that can help me."

Kanan was half tempted cut him free and let his go after the thing, but this currently the only solution presenting itself at this time, and Kanan was hoping that maybe Dral had some equipment that could detain JV-FR13, if he knew what to expect.

"Well, we can give you some tips. For one, you aren't going to be able to gun him down or otherwise physically hurt him."

"Yeah, the holonet says something about advanced body armor or something like that."

"Or something." Kanan said looking from Dral's face to each of crewmates faces, all of them darkening at the memory of JV-FR13 unique durability.

"Look, mate, before you continue, can you cut me free?" he said smirking again "Not that I don't appreciate your unique brand of hospitality, but my arms..." he finished with a shrug.

Kanan nodded to Zeb, who grunted and untied the cables subduing him.

Stretching Dral looked Kanan in the eye and said "I don't really want to hunt this guy, he's gonna be a lot of trouble, but your little friend over there." he gestured to Sabine "got me her by chasing after a dead man's signal, I need to make up the money somehow." he finished, not noticing Sabine wincing at the words "dead man."

* * *

In the sitting room on the Ghost, everyone looked on as Hera worked the projector, bringing up the data on JV-FR13. While the crew of the Ghost all stood or sat around the table, Dral had been forced to stand with his back to the wall, all he weapons and equipment left in the cargo bay.

"Blasters are next to useless." Hera said as Dral only half listened, making a wheeling motion with his hand, making it clear he wanted her to get on with it. "Excuse me, is this boring you?"

"Yeah, you are, I don't needed to know how to take 'em down, I need useful information, what does think like, what area's he haunts, what, if anything, motivates him, things like that so I can find him, I know how to catch my prey, but I need leads to find him."

"If you go after him without knowing what he's capable of, he'll kill you." Zeb bluntly stated.

"Yeah, whatever, I've heard the same line a hundred times 'So and so is the most dangerous so and so on the planet' it's just the locals all getting worked up over a more than normally talented killer." Dral's tone one of irritated boredom.

Hera was tempted to let him try his luck, but as obnoxious as he was, she didn't think she had it in her to intentionally send someone to their death, at least not a non-imperial.

"Okay, well here's what the holonet isn't saying." she said pulling up more in depth information on JV-FR13. "He is not just a normal madman or crazed killer, he is a genetic experiment gone wrong." She pulled. "He's essentially blaster proof and can quickly heal from almost any injury." to emphasize her point, she pulled up lab tests done on it, complete with video files. "So those stories of his "body armor" are just stories, and in fact the locals have it right this time, he really is blaster proof."

Looking up from the control panel, Hera noticed the smug look had vanished from Dral's face, replaced by one that looked like his jaw was so tightly clenched shut, and some of the color had drained from his face.

"That...can't be right" was all he said at first. Hera didn't know what was going on in his head, but she was pretty sure the revelation that at least one of the stories circulating around his target was true, and that in turn opened the door to the other's, and she didn't doubt that had unnerved him. He was clearly a confident man, but that confidence clearly did not hold up in face of the unknown.

"It's right, we've seen it first hand, you can't blast him into piece and collect the reward."

Dral put his thumb under his chin and his forefinger over his mouth, thinking. "Okay, let's say this is all true, then the only option available is to catch him in trap." he rubbed his chin again "I have something on my ship that might work...wouldn't normally use it, but in this case...it might work."

Hera hated it when people were vague, and was about to ask for clarification when Dral started to make his way to the ships exit.

* * *

This day was not at all turning out like he planned. No Wren, a humiliating capture and finding out he was now looking at facing a genuinely un killable target. He could do it, or at least he probably could, but damn, he wasn't sure if this was at all worth it.

As he made his way into the cargo hold and started picking up his equipment he heard a voice "I hope your planning going to get whatever it is you have on your ship to catch that thing and cutting and running."

Looking up from his task he saw the young Mandalorian girl, Sabine, he was pretty sure was her name. He hadn't really bothered to pay attention when these people talked to each other. "Yeah, maybe I am, but that thing ain't human girly, I might be able to catch him, but damn, how did something like that end up on Lothol? The Empire doesn't have any genetic labs here." He noticed her gaze shift from him to the floor for a fraction of a second, but he caught it. They were involved in some way, that's why they had bothered to help him at all.

He hadn't told them he knew they were the locale rebels that the Empire was hunting for, but he guessed he already knew, the holonet was full of picture of them, expect for her of course, she always wore her helmet in every image circulating of them, smart of her to hide her face.

He considered trying to take the bounty on them as well, but he wasn't equipped on taking out or trying to capture more than two or three people, and his earlier encounter didn't make him think his chances were too good.

But they were responsible in some way for the "Shape", he was certain of that, Sabine's shifting gaze, the fact they were sharing very sensitive imperial information with him. Guilt was the only thing that could motivate them to do that.

"Maybe I could take him, but one mistake and I'm done, I'm gonna a need more than the Moff's bounty on him to give it a try." he had them, guilt could lead to desperation, but it could also lead to a more a payday. "You rebels, have to have some connection that could help ...compensate me for my trouble."

Sabine was taken aback at the comment, from her understanding the bounty the Moff's had placed on the "Shape" was quite substantial, and here this guy was trying to extort more out of the deal.

"We can arrange something, if you pull it off." Hera's voice came from behind Sabine, making her jump in surprise.

Dral grinned, showing his copper teeth. "Excellent, well I'll be off to my ship, get what I need and..."

"You aren't going anywhere alone, until you fulfill your end of the bargain, I don't feel comfortable letting you run around unattended."

Dral's smirk faded, he hated having clients assian people to watch him. He wasn't going to do anything other than grab his equipment and come back, it was't like he was going to run off, even if he did, what did they care, they hadn't paid him yet.

They were probably scared he'd turn them over the Empire if he went anywhere alone, and they were probably right, but not until after they paid him.

"Well I won't have you flying your ship to mine, so unless you don't mind hoofin' it, I'm going alone."

"I'll go with you." Sabine said jumping down to where Dral was.

"Hah, I knew you couldn't resist me, my natural charm..." he was cut off by a quick jab to the diaphragm , quickly shutting him up.

"Shut up and walk." she said to him as she walked past him down the ramp.

Dral didn't respond in anything more than a series of grumbling curses that were not quite understandable.

"I'm coming to." Ezra shouted running after them, Dral didn't do anything other than snort.

* * *

For the first half hour of the journey was uncomfortably silent. Ezra wanted to talk to Sabine about what she had heard Dral say, but the bounty hunters presence made it awkward.

Ezra somewhat relieved that Sabine spoke first.

"Atin Wren, who's after him?"

Dral looked her up in down before answering "Couldn't tell you lovely, Hutts want him, didn't tell me why." Looking her over again he said "Why do you care?"

Sabine didn't answer , but Dral seemed to be on the trail. "You know him or somthin'?"

She still didn't say anything. Dral turned from her and to Ezra "What's her name again?"

Ezra was a little irritated at this, and he noticed Sabine make a face at this "Her name is Sabine, haven't you been paying attention?"

"Oh I have, but you miss understand me, what's her full name, her last name."

Ezra wasn't sure if he should tell him that much and glanced over at Sabine for a clue. A quick shake of her head told him what he needed to know.

"None of your business, ugly."

"Ohhh, name calling, well what do you expect from an eleven year old." Dral said smirking again, and Ezra was certain he had intentionally made the "mistake" on his age to try and get a rise out of him.

"I'm fifteen smart guy."

"Really? Your small for your age, a bit of a runt really."

"You two can shut up now, if you aren't going to say anything constructive than keep quite."

Dral and Ezra looked at her for a moment, a bit taken aback by the sudden scolding.

"So, why are you interest in Atin? " Dral said as they continued their march. Sabine didn't respond, but Dral didn't need her to.

"He was your father wasn't he." He said nonchalantly as they walked. Sabine and Ezra both stopped dead in their tracks.

"How did you know?" she said, irritation clear in her voice.

"I did my research on him girly." Dral said turning back to look at her. "I know he was married and had a daughter, who would be around your age, and you happen to look a lot like his wife. Really wasn't hard once you started reacting every time I said his name."

Ezra however felt a pit in his stomach, he didn't know anything about Sabine's family, but the fact her father was wanted by the Hutts, well that didn't exactly make him feel great.

Dral spoke again "So you'd be Sabine Wren, then." he looked from her to Ezra, their faces telling him he had certainly made them uncomfortable. He was certainly having more fun on this walk than he had intended.

* * *

Sabine could tell Ezra wanted to talk to her about what he had just heard, but she wasn't about to talk around Dral. He was the most obnoxious man she had ever meet, he was gross constantly spitting and cursing, and he looked and smelled like he hadn't bathed in a few days.

She was also sensing a mean streak in him, she was sure he was getting enjoyment out of the distress he was causing them. Then there was his never ending and clumsy flirting with her, which again she was certain was just his attempt to irritate and aggravate both her and Ezra, who got agitated every time he said anything to her.

"So Ezra my boy, have you ever asked Sabine out?"

Sabine felt her face flush at this, and she turned to look at Ezra, whose face was just as red.

"Shut up Dral!" Ezra shouted, picking up a stick throwing it at him, which he caught.

"I'll take that as a no, or else you have and she shot you down."

"Shut up Dral!" Sabine shouted this time, throwing a rock at his head, this time he wasn't quick enough and it his with a loud "thunk", making him curse in pain.

"Touchy aren't you, I was just asking, I mean he clearly..." he stopped the faint smile on his face falling and the color leaving his face. He turned pale and looked around, like he had heard something.

"What is it?" Ezra said in a whisper, clearly spooked by the sudden change in demeanor. Then he heard the vocie again. "Run away, get away." it said like a whisper in his ear.

"Dral...Ezra? What is it?" Sabine did an excellent job at masking the concern in her voice.

"Something's out there." Dral said drawing his blast.

Sabine looked to Ezra from confirmation, and he nodded grimly. "It's him."

"What have you two got in terms of weapons, anything heavy? I've just got my non-lethals, I can't take on much now."

"No, just a pair of hold outs." Sabine said looked to Ezra hopefully, but he just shook his head.

"I've got nothing."

"We're gonna have to run for it."Dral said, a bead of sweat running down his temple "It's that thing, "The Shape." he was whispering now.

"How can you tell? Ezra asked. He could sense it's presence, but Dral wasn't force sensitive, how could he know what it was.

He just pointed off into the distance, and Ezra just saw a massive shadow in the distance.

* * *

It was the boy and the girl. They had brought him her, the man was telling him to take them, the boy in particular was especially deserving of his justice.

He had stalked them for some time now, but the boy and the big man both had noticed him. It was time to act, time to kill.

* * *

A/N: Okay Chapter 2, please leave a review. The more reviews I get the quicker I update, although give this update is coming in so quick after the last, I guess that's not saying much,

Oh, well at any rate please review.


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay, another chapter up, I'm pretty happy with the speed at which I'm updating this story. The reviews do help me update faster, they motivate me and get much blood pumping.

On another note, I would like to tell anyone reading this, that if you ever have to go to work around a place where they operate a forklift, make sure you keep your wits about you. I got hit by a fully loaded forklift at work, which was about ten tons of steel and stone. Lucky for me, I only got knocked down and got some scraps and pulled calf muscle for it. But it could of been a serious accident, so always be aware of your surroundings.

Well enough of my own personal woes, onto the story.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 3

Ezra had his lightsaber out and ready, but not on. He wasn't about to let Dral know what he was, Jedi were among the most sought after prizes for a bounty hunter, in both prestige and pay. Of course if that thing got close enough he wouldn't be left with much of a choice.

Before Ezra could make another move however, he felt a vice like grip on his shoulder. Turning his head he saw Dral stepping forward.

"Get behind me, I've got this one."

Ezra wasn't sure if it was bravery or arrogance, but he didn't have much of a problem letting Dral try his hand on JV-FR13. Warching him get a beating might make up for all the crap he said.

"So, you're the big bad monster of Lothol!" Dral said as he marched forward fiddling with his wrist gantlets. JV-FR13 just looked at him dead in the face as the hte distance closed between them. Dral spit on the group, "You don't look so tough." They were now about forty feet part now and JV-FR13 still hadn't made a move.

"Ezra we can't just let him..." Sabine began before she was cut off by a loud screeching that drowned out her voice, followed by a blinding light.

Ezra glanced back to Dral, he had fired a flare or rocket right over JV-FR13's head. The silent killer watched it, apparently immune to the deafening noise and blinding light.

Sensing something, Ezra grabbed Sabine and turned her away around just as the projectile exploded with a defining bang. It was a type of flash bang, like the one he had used on Ezra.

"Not done yet!" Dral shouted, and Ezra thought he heard the ring of laughter in his voice, followed by what sounded like two small object's zipping through the air.

Looking up again at JV-FR13, Ezra notice two long metal darts in JV-FR13's eyes. The thing had dropped its blade to reach up to remove the obstructing objects. Before he could however, they discharged an enormous amount of electricity.

It's muscles seized up and it started twitching in a particularly unpleasant manner. After they discharged their entire charge, the thing fell to the ground in heap, and Dral let out a hoarse laugh.

* * *

"You all had be thinking this thing was some sort of monster!" He neared shouted walking up to the body, kicking it once. "I just made me a big ol' payday!"

Sabine had been moderately impressed with the quick response, but Dral was doing something incredibly stupid.

"Dral get away from him, we need to go now."

Dral turned back around to face her "He's dead, what are you so afraid of? Don't tell me you're scared of corpses!"

"He's not dead!" Ezra shouted.

Dral, with a confused look on his face, turned just in time to see JV-FR13 rise, and drive it's blade into his stomach, cutting through his armor like butter. Dral didn't make a noise as it happen, except for a gasp of shock.

JV-FR13 pulled the blade out quickly enough to cause sparks to fly from where the metal of the blade meet Dral's armor. Dral feel onto his back clenching his stomach.

Ad JV-FR13 raised the blade to finish the job, he was meet with a barrage of blaster fire, causing him to look up from his target. Sabine had opened fire, distracting him.

Dral took this moment to fire six more spikes in JV-FR13, then fired off on his jetpack, sending him flying fast and low over the ground back to where Ezra and Sabine stood.

"Oh damn, he got me good, we need to get to my ship." he gasped out as the spikes let loose a much larger electrical charge than before, again causing the thing's muscle to seize up.

He tried to get up and walk but collapsed "You two need to help me, we ain't getting anywhere fast if I can't walk."

Sabine and Ezra didn't argue, they knew that they couldn't fight JV-FR13 and running would only last so long, they needed to get to a ship. They each got under his arms and hoisted him up.

"Hold on." Sabine said, bending over and putting something on the ground. "Okay let's go."

* * *

"You..." Ezra gasped as they ran "Are really heavy."

"Shut up, it's not much further, we just need to get to the ship, then." Dral was cut off by a loud explosion coming from behind them.

"What the hell what that?" Dral shouted as loud as he could.

"'The Shape' just walked onto one of my bombs, or at least walked near it, that should buy a few more minutes."

"Good...good, listen I'm fadin' here, I'm not gonna make it at this pace."

The sudden change in attitude surprised, was he telling them to leave him to save themselves, but that line of thought made it so Ezra couldn't help but think of him leaving Tyber to that thing, and his guilt came back in full force. "We're not leaving you here, we need you to get to that ship." Ezra said with as much authority as he could.

"What the hell are you talking about? I'm not sayin' leave me, I'm sayin' pick up the pace! I'm not dyin' on your account!"

Ezra groaned and mentally noted he needed to stop assuming thing's and jumping to conclusions. He also reconsidered his previous statement about leaving him behind.

"Dral." Sabine said as she started to pick up the speed, apparently agreeing with him on at least the need to move quicker. "A piece of advice, don't aggravate the people carrying you to safety when and unstoppable murder machine is chasing you."

Dral coughed up a glob of blood and said "Noted."

* * *

The ship was, in Ezra's opinion, the sorriest excuse for a ship he had ever soon. It looked like a mongrel of several different ship designs and none of them a recent model.

The ship also didn't look particularly well maintained, pieces looked rusted and like they might fall off.

Dral limped up the ramp, with Sabine and Ezra following him as tried to get into the cockpit, but slumped to the floor.

"One of you is gonne need to fly this thing, I need to get this off." He gasped out, pulling off her armor. "Which one of you is the better pilot?"

Ezra knew it was Sabine, who didn't even answer and just jumped into the controls.

"Okay you." Dral said pointing to Ezra "Get me some Bact patches, under the co-pilot chair."

Ezra did as he was told, and quickly retrieved the patches as the ship took off. Ezra looked out hte window and saw 'The Shape' just staring at them, not running up to the ship, just staring, and Ezra was certain that it was looking right at him.

* * *

"Oh, that was close." Dral muttered to himself as he climbed into the co-pilot chair. "Guess you folks weren't so full of it, that fella should of lived through the spikes in the eye's let alone the shock."

Sabine snuck a look at Dral to see where he had been stabbed. He was lucky it hadn't more to the center of his body, otherwise it would of likely of been instantly fatal. He'd need proper treatment however, the patches wouldn't fix major internal damage on their own.

"Checking out my body?" Dral said as he closed his eyes and reclined in his seat, relaxing.

Sabine flushed red, this guy didn't know when to stop. "No, I was looking to see where you got hit, your going to need proper treatment if that thing hit any organs."

"Not necessary." he said sighing out like he was getting ready to sleep.

"I know you want to sound tough, but if..."

"I know what's wrong with me." He tapped his temple "Implant in my eye, gives me real time data on my body's condition, all I was in danger of was bleeding out, the Bacta is doing its work, I'm just gonna need a few days to recuperate."

This comment gave Sabine a bit of relief, she wasn't looking forward to trying to find a doctor to treat this guy, although she supposed they could of taken him to the Vet if they had to."

"That's how you knew he was following us!" Ezra exclaimed loudly and making Sabine and Dral jump. He smirked "Sorry, but I was wondering how you knew he was there before you saw him, your implant can track bio signatures can't it?"

Dral opened his eyes and looked at Ezra then closed them again "Yeah, it can, I'll tell you it comes in handy. But that fella back there, his signature was off, that's what spooked me. Normally it differentiates between sentient and non-sentient species, with him it was all over the place."

Sabine raised an eyebrow "You figured all the out from him having a vitals' monitoring implant?"

Ezra shrugged "I've heard about people modifying them to pick up on other signatures other than the user's, real popular with Bounty Hunters to help them find hidden targets."

Ezra didn't tell her, nor would he while Dral was around, that he had briefly suspect Dral was force sensitive.

"So Dral, we're here on the ship, where is your equipment that you think might be able to bring that thing down?" Sabine said without turning to look at Dral.

Eye's still closed, Dral lazily gestured over his shoulder. Ezra stood up from his seat and walked to the wall. "There's nothing here, Dral I think you've lost to much blood."

His voice at ease, he was clearly drifting off to sleep he said "Hit the wall twice..." with that his voice trailed off and his breathing became slow and even, he had clearly just fallen asleep.

Trading glances with Sabine, Ezra shrugged and banged on the wall twice. The result was near instant and seven different panels flipped over reveling several weapons caches.

"What the..." Ezra stammered, a bit surprised.

"Yeah common bounty hunter and smuggler tactic, hidden panels and holds, that way if their searched they can hide anything their not supposed to have." Sabine said taking a quick look at the weapons.

"Ooookaaay, but what was he talking about, theirs like twenty different kinds of blasters here."

Sabine gave a quick look before returning to the controls. "I don't know Ezra, I can have a look when we land, but we might have to wait for Dral to wake up."

"Well let's wake him up now." Ezra said making his way to the sleeping Dral.

"No!" Sabine shouted taking her hands off the controls for moment making the ship dip.

"Why not!?" Ezra stepped back, afraid he had made a misstep.

"I like him like this."

"Like what?" Ezra looked at him, then to Sabine.

"Quiet."

* * *

The rest of the trip went in largely in silence. Awkward silence, and Ezra felt like it was squeezing his chest. At least when Dral was awake, there weren't any awkward silences, awkward comments and conversations, but at least it moved on from whatever he was saying fairly quickly.

"So...what did you think of..." Ezra stammered trying to get the conversation going, looking around the cockpit for something. They only thing he saw besides the weapons was Dral. "How Dral handled that thing?"

Sabine looked from Ezra to the still sleeping Dral "Okay, don't tell him this when he wakes up, but I was pretty impressed on how quickly he thought of that plan, didn't work and he got himself stabbed, but still pretty quick thinking."

Ezra sighed and didn't say anything, but silently agreed. Obnoxious and rude as he was, Dral had made a pretty impressive plan up on the fly. Of course he completely ruined anything he'd done by walking up to the thing and kicking it.

He looked over at Dral, and something seemed off "Sabine...Do people normally sweat that much when they sleep."

Sabine took a look at Dral, he was completely soaked in sweat, and the face that had been relaxed when he drifted off.

"He's probably just feeling the pain from his injury, don't worry to much about it, we're home."

Ezra looked out of the window and saw the Ghost come into view. They had only been gone half a day, but it felt much longer to him. This whole deal was going to drive him up the wall.

* * *

"That is the sorriest excuse for a ship I have ever seen." was Zeb first comment as it landed across from the Ghost. Ezra and Sabine came down the loading ramp, with the Bounty Hunter noticeably absent. "Where is Dral?"

"On board sleeping, we ran into the "Shape" on our way to his ship. Dral gave him a good hit, then it gave him one back, except he doesn't have any super healing factor, so he's down for the count right now." Ezra said.

Kanan walked up to the ship, looking it over, then to Sabine. "We, you obviously got away, so where's his equipment?"

"Well he's got a lot of stuff on there, I can take a guess at what he means, but it's be better if he just showed us."

"Well go wake him up, the sooner we get set up, the sooner we can get this over with." Kanan said.

Sabine sighed and turned around and went up the ramp.

* * *

Dral was still in his chair, but Sabine knew something was wrong the moment she saw him. He still asleep, but he appeared to be perspiring even more now, and he was jerking around in the chair. His arms, legs and head all going at random intervals. His face looked like he was being tortured, he was frowning and was having muscle spasms. He water muttering in his sleep to. It was truly disturbing, she was wondering that maybe JV-FR13 had poisoned him when it stabbed him, or else he had some kind of infection.

Whatever it was, she really didn't want to go near him, but she steeled herself and went to do it.

Then she heard the whimpering. At first she didn't know where it was coming from, then she realized it was coming from Dral. It didn't sound at all like his deep and gravelly voice, it sound like, almost like a crying child.

Dral was over six feet tall and built with incredibly thick muscle with a number of scars on his body, he just looked like a tough thug, the site of him and the sounds he was making was incredibly unnerving.

Shaking her head, clearing these thoughts, she needed to get down to business. "Dral." she called, probably not as loud as she should of.

"No." he whimpered out, still not awake. "Please." he pleaded to apparently someone who wasn't there.

"Dral!" she said more force. Still nothing. She really didn't want to touch him, he had been perspiring and looked dirty. But she was really uncomfortable she wanted get out of the ship fast.

Walking foreword she put her hand on his shoulder and shook him as she said "Dral!

The response was instant. He shot up and grabbed her by the throat, putting a knife to her temple, his eyes wide and full of fear. He only shouted "No more!"

"Dral it's me!" she shouted, not knowing how this would help but she was certain he thought she was someone else.

He blinked a couple of times, and his ragged breathing evened out and he let her go and put the knife away. "Don't ever wake me up like that!" he near shouted at her. "What do you want!"

"What the hell was that about!" Sabine didn't need and answer to the question. Dral wasn't suffering from an infection or poisoning, if he was, his symptoms wouldn't fade so quickly when he woke up. No he had something a large number of soldier had. She knew someone with Post Traumatic Stress disorder when she saw it.

"I wanted the equipment you were talking about." she said backing up from him, he still looked agitated.

"Right, right, here, right here." he said going over to the weapons cache and pulling off one of the bulkiest blasters she had ever seen. The barrel was several times thicker than a standard blaster rifle and it appeared to have a grenade launcher under slung on the barrel. It also looked patch worked and have several tubes hanging out.

Not wanting to set him off again, but needing an explanation she asked "What is that thing."

Dral didn't answer right away, but looked at her for a moment "I'll show you all, come on..."He grunted and grabbed in injury. Sabine went forward to help him up, but he batted her hand away. She looked offended but didn't say anything. Dral spoke again "When you..came in here, did you...what did you hear me say? I mean did I say anything while I was asleep?"

His face betrayed fear, fear of someone who had a secret they did not want getting out. "Not really, just 'no' and 'please' but nothing else." she answered truthfully.

He didn't seemed pleased at this, but he shrugged and walked down the ship ramp.

Sabine was left alone and confused.

* * *

"This here." Dral said, patting the oversized blaster "is my go to tool of choice when I need to capture someone alive, or at least it would be if it worked."

Sabine came jogging down the ramp as Dral explained the weapon.

"It can immobilize pretty much anything in the galaxy, problem is, once it stops moving, it's probably never gonna start again." He squeezed the trigger and instead of a blaster bolt firing as was expected, a mist shot out in a spread pattern about forty feet in front of him.

Sabine was confused at first, but as the vapor cleared, she saw all the grass that had been touched by the fog had iced over. It wasn't a blaster at all, it was a type of cryo-gun, it would freeze the target.

"And for good measure" with a loud "thump" he launched a grenade out that exploded and relased the same mist, freezing anything it touched.

"Problem with it." Dral said as he set it down "It doesn't work like it' supposed to, everything I've ever tried it one dies from the cold, but given our little psycho paths...unique abilities, I don't see that as a problem."

It made perfect sense, when they had brought it to Lothol, it had been frozen and inactive. If they could freeze it, then they could...she didn't know what exactly, but they could at least remove him from Lothol, maybe drop him on Hoth or something, let him stay frozen for the rest of eternity.

Glancing to the rest of the crew of the Ghost, Sabine could tell they were all thinking the same thing as her, a good idea in theory, but they'd have to wait and see if it really worked.

"Once he's frozen" Dral said " I can keep him on ice until I take him to the proper Imperail authorities,...or we can hit him with a shovel or something, I don't much care so long as I get paid." Dral finshed and picked up the cryo-gun and went back onto his ship. "I need a few days to recover, after that, it'll be time to go hunting."

"We can't wait that long." Hera shouted after him "That thing it out there killing people now."

"Well, you arin't gonna do it without me, that think tried to make a pin cushion out of me, I'm the one who's gonna get him, not any of you. Unless you got another plan, in which case we do it my way."

No one said anything to this, and Dral went back onto his ship.

The rest of crew looked annoyed, and Sabine was feeling it as well, but it was mixed with a sense of pity for Dral, after the state she saw him on his ship. That man had a dark secret, and she was more than a little curious about it.

From her limited interaction with him he seemed to have two personalities. The cocky, crude and rude bounty hunter, the one everyone saw and the one he wanted them to see. But she thought she saw a glimpse the real him in the moment on the ship. A man with some serious demons, ones he went to fairly great lengths to cover up.

* * *

A/N: Okay tell me what you think. Please review and give me your honest opinion.

I won't beg for reviews and I won't stop writing if I don't get them, but it is nice to know people are reading my work, and it is also nice to get some real feed back.


	5. Chapter 4

A/N: Okay, yet another chapter. I'm really pumping them out aren't I.

Okay, for this chapter I'm going to try something different. I have the next chapter written at this point and I will publish it as soon as I get ten reviews for this chapter. If not, I will be posting it this weekend.

Well anyway onto the story.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 4

The boy, it was the boy he needed to kill. The man told him it was the boy who was responsible, the one who did this to him, why he was here, why he burned.

The woman lied, said it wasn't his fault, tried to keep his rage suppressed. The man could be trusted, he directed him, the woman lied, she tried to stop him.

But it was the boy now he knew, he was the one who needed to die, the boy the die, he must kill the boy.

* * *

"I'm telling you, Zeb that guy is the most obnoxious person in the galaxy." Ezra ranted to Zeb as they both sat in their bunk.

Zeb, who had heard this line of thought at least three times already, just mumbled response, which is all Ezra seemed to care about. Zeb knew he was just venting his frustration at his little trip with Dral and Sabine. Zeb knew, along with anyone who spent more than an hour with Ezra and Sabine, that Ezra was nursing a flame for the young Mandalorian. Dral had apparently picked this up as well and had made a habit of torturing the poor kid with flirting with Sabine and outright brining up the subject.

Now Zeb was known to do this to the kid from time to time, but that was different. Zeb was allowed to make fun of him, Dral was not. Making am mental note to talk to the Mandalorain when he got the chance, Zeb found himself wondering about the bounty hunter.

Mostly he just wondered why they were even working with him. Kanan and Hera both told him that it was because they needed to have someone who knew what it was like to hunt someone rather than right them. Zeb supposed that made sense, but that didn't mean they needed Dral, they could of contracted any number of bounty hunters to help with the job. While they'd probably never be able to afford someone like Boba Fett or Bossk, there were still tons of hunters available with good reputation's for hire. He would of even of settled for the hunter's they had encountered working for the Zann Consortium, but he did not trust Dral.

Dral's appearance and attitude did not lend itself to confidence. The way he spoke and acted made him seem just a few steps above a common thug. Then there was how he looked, Zeb wouldn't judge a person how they looked, but Dral looked almost a decade older than he actually was. Stress was the only thing Zeb could think of that aged a person that quickly, and that made him wonder what he was up to that would cause that level of stress.

"I was almost glad when that thing showed up." Ezra said snapping Zeb out of his thoughts.

"Ezra, I've heard the story already, I know the guy is scum. Just stay away from hum until he's done here."

Ezra snorted "You really think he can stop that thing just because he has a giant fire extinguisher?"

"No, but Kanan and Hera think we need to do something and this is best plan we have."

"It's the only plan Zeb!" Ezra said, his voice rising in volume.

"That's why it's the best."

Snorting again Ezra continued "So it's either no idea or a bad idea?"

"Pretty much." sighed Zeb.

* * *

"I swear to all that his holy, I'm going to scrap you as soon as I get paid for this job, I'll be able to afford a new ship, a nice one, one that doesn't drop the cargo when someone sneezes."

Sabine could hear him ranting and raving from inside his ship while she and Hera did some upkeep on the Ghost.

"That guy is not right in the head." Hera said as she worked, not bothering to look up.

Sabine was certain Hera was more correct in this thought than she knew. The little incident on the ship earlier made Sabine sure Dral was suffering from PTSD, which she knew could screw up any plan they might have. It wasn't uncommon for soldier's to develop PTSD, and she didn't hold it against anyone and truly didn't wish it on anyone, but if left untreated or unaddressed , as it apparently it was with Dral, it could lead to a whole world of issues. Self destructive tendencies and potentially unstable or even violent tendencies.

She wasn't entirely sure if she should tell the rest of the crew of the Ghost. She didn't owe Dral anything, but she felt like betraying him, another Mandalorian, no matter how crass he was, felt oddly like turning on a distant family member.

But the crew had been her family for a long time now, and he was hunting her father. She'd have to tell at least Hera and Kanan, Ezra and Zeb might not act the most level headed if confronted with the information.

"Hera." she began, pausing to try and find the right words to convey what she was thinking. "Dral, I think he might be...well he might not be the most stable person."

At this, Hera actully stopped her work and looked at Sabine. "What do you mean by that? What did you see?"

Shifting on her feet, never comfortable in situation like this, she thought for a moment how much to tell. "When I went to get him earlier, after we got back, he was having some kind of... I don't know episode while he was asleep, he was sweating and mumbling to himself. When I woke him up...he didn't seem like he knew where he was, like he thought he was being attacked." she left out the part where he attacked her. After the whole incident with Tyber, she didn't want to give them any reason to think she couldn't take care of herself.

Hera thought for a moment before speaking "Thanks for telling me this Sabine, I'll talk to Kanan about it, but don't tell Zeb and Ezra anything just yet." Sabine nodded at this, she wasn't planning on telling them anything yet anyway.

Closing the panel they were working on, Hera went to find Kanan.

In the distance Sabine heard Dral swear again, clearly frustrated at his own trouble with his ship.

* * *

Kanan didn't like the sound of what Hera had told him. They kept getting caught up with people they were better off leaving alone, and now they had a potentially unstable bounty hunter.

But the problem with JV-FR13 outweighed any desire to avoid working with an emotionally disturbed man. From what Sabine had told Hera, he may be emotionally unstable, but as long as he didn't show any signs of violent out lashing, he was still willing to work with him, so long as it wasn't on a long term base.

"Hera, why do we keep running into people we'd be better off just staying away from?"

"That's our life love, we get to deal with the dregs of the galaxy."

Kanan sighed and knew she was joking, but also knew she was pretty well on the ball.

* * *

His hand started to shake as he worked on the ship's engine. He knew what it meant, the tremor always came before the flashback's came. It was weird that the physical reaction came before the memory.

His vision went into tunnels and he could hear the deep rumbling laugh, the one that haunted his dream. He needed his medication.

Jumping to his feet Dral ran as fast as could to the cockpit and started going through the medical kit under the co-pilots seat. Finding at bottle rolling around the bottom of the box, he popped the cap off and fished one of the pills out and crammed it in his mouth, slowing it dry.

The tremors lessoned and the laughter faded as he sat in the pilot's chair. His breathing started to slow down, he hadn't even noticed that it had increased to the point it had. Taking deep breaths he leaned back in the chair, inhaling through his nose and exhaling through his mouth.

As his heart rate dropped back down to normal levels, Dral raised his hand to eye level to examine them for the tremors. They had faded, and he let out a deep sigh of relief, glad to of suppressed the incident this time.

Hunching over he continued to look at his hands, and set his face into the palms of hands.

* * *

"In light of the killing spree's committed by "The Shape", Imperial authorities are bringing in expert's to deal with the killer. Our sources say" the news feed said before Ezra cut it off. He didn't want hear how the Empire planned to deal with JV-FR13. He wondered if they even knew what he was, in the chaos of the entire events around his escape, the loss of the data and the facility, Ezra thought that maybe they didn't truly know what they were dealing with. This also made him wonder that if they did, they would of been able to deal with it better.

Come to think of it, he didn't think that even the doctor who made him really truly knew what he had made, after all in the brief encounter they had with him, he said it lacked higher brain functions, but what Ezra had seen, that didn't seem wholly correct. Granted it didn't seem extremely intelligent, it had made some clear and planned actions. The time it intentionally destroyed the control panel at the facility rang in his mind.

Ezra wanted the creature dealt with, but he seriously doubted shooting it with a fire extinguisher would work. Granted it had been frozen on the trip from Kamino to Lothol, so that idea at least had merits, but Ezra was sure he felt something more to it than just and biological weapon. The ghost of the voice that came every time it was near, Ezra was certain there was some sort of force element to his existence.

That may be how it could even be alive, he'd heard Kanan and Hera talk about how all its mismatched genetic code didn't match make sense, how it shouldn't of even be alive. Could some sort of force aspect to it allow it to survive what had killed who knew how many test subject before it?

He'd have to bring it up to Kanan, see what he thought about it.

* * *

Later that night Ezra had the dream again. JV-FR13 chasing him, catching him, and it's face being Tyber Zann's. Again he woke up covered in cold sweat, and punched the steel wall next to his bunk.

Zeb stirred but didn't wake, for which Ezra was grateful, he didn't want to talk to anyone about this right now, let alone Zeb. Of everyone on the ship, Zeb may be the one Ezra felt like he could confided in the least. It wasn't anything to do with trust, he trusted him with his life, but Kanan and Hera had a more "father/mother" feeling, where as Zeb felt like a big brother, or maybe and Uncle. Sabine was easier to relate to, and she understood him better than anyone else except Kanan, they were close in age and she knew what it was like to be his age, which was something everyone over twenty complete forgot about.

Lying back down in his bunk, he closed his eyes but didn't fall asleep. He was scared to fall asleep again, each time the dream came it was more intense and more realistic. He wasn't sure how much longer he could deal with this before he cracked.

* * *

Sabine was the first to rise on the ship the next day. With everyone else still asleep she walked down the ramp of the Ghost to head outside. She loved getting up early to watch the sun rise, she found the colors inspiring, and enjoy the fresh air, the air on Lothol always seemed cleaner in the morning.

This time of the year, it was always cold in the morning and the ground wet. Her sleep wear didn't offer much insulation against the cold, she only stayed out for a few minutes.

The sunrise was as spectacular as always, but her feet were wet and she was starting to shiver. Turning to head back into the Ghost and make her breakfast when she heard it.

It sounded like a familiar whimpering sound coming from Dral's ship. She wanted to ignore it and just go back inside, but she knew that it wasn't in her nature to do so. And against he own wishes, she walked over to Dral's ship.

It didn't take her long to find the source of the noise. Dral was in his underwear hunkered under his ship in the fetal position shivering in the cold. But despite the low temperature, he was covered head to toe in sweat again, like when she found him on the ship.

"Dral." she said not really wanting to try and address him, but she could leave him out here like this. It didn't matter, he didn't acknowledge her.

"Dral!" she said with more force this time. Still no response. Reaching out she put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention.

Before she could say his name again he reached up and grabbed it with an extreme amount of force. He looked up at her, his eyes wide again with fear. This time however he didn't pull a knife on her or grab her throat. He seemed to get a hold of himself fairly quickly once he was awake.

He seemed to come to himself fairly quickly, looking down at the wrist he was holding and quickly letting go like he had been burned.

Not even saying a word to her, he ran up the ramp of his ship and went inside.

This was not normal behavior. That was the second time in two days that he had such incident. Pondering what she should do, she looked to the Ghost then to Dral's ship.

Sighing, she muttered "I'm going to regret this." and walked up the ramp to Dral's ship.

* * *

This was bad, this was the second time in two days he had such sever episodes. He didn't even remember leaving his ship last night, or stripping down. And the girl had found him both times, he had done a good job keeping this issue under wraps, if it got out then he would never get another job, no one would ever hire him.

The clanging on the door didn't immediately register at first, he was to engrossed in his own thoughts then he heard the voice of the girl "Dral, you are going to either have to talk to me about this or Kanan and Hera, and if it's them, you can kiss that payday good bye."

Cursing Dral opened the door and let her in.

"I see you dressed up for me." she said to him with a clearly false joking tone. He of course hadn't dressed at all from how she found him. Grunting grabbed a shirt a pulled it on,

"Dral, that's the second time I've found you like that, you wanna say anything that might make me more comfortable working with you?"

He shifted on his feet a little and said "I've got some issues."

Sabine raised her eyebrow at this comment, that much was obvious. "Is this something that is going to affect how well you work Dral? If it is then we need to know."

Dral grunted and paced for a moment "It only happens when I'm asleep, so long as I'm awake I'm fine."

Sabine considered herself good at picking up lies, not as good as Kanan for obvious reasons, but good enough. She didn't sense any true deception in Dral, but that didn't put her totally at ease, Dral was a Mandalorian and a Bounty Hunter, she was willing to beat he was a skilled liar when he needed to be.

But she had already told Hera what she felt and their wasn't anything new to report on him. She would peruse this line of thought much further, he was still clearly highly aggravated and she didn't want to push her luck with him.

"Well, Dral on another note, you need a shower, you smelt bad when I meet you and you haven't exactly been doing anything to improve it." she said with a faint smile, hoping the joke would calm him down. Well half joke, as much as he was sweating he was starting to smell really bad.

He smirked and grunted at this "Tell that to this hunk of junk." he said kicking the wall of his ship "Last month I took and the entire refresher section dropped out and fell five-hundred feet to the ground, haven't been able to replace it."

Sabine smiled at this, but didn't really believe him, she had never heard of and entire section of a ship falling out on it's own, even in the most poorly maintained ships.

"Don't believe me?" he said, the ghost of smirk on his face, as he walked to a door and hit the control panel. The door hissed open and lead to...nothing. Sabine looked in and down and the saw the grass on the ground. Well that least explained how he got outside, if he's been sleep walking he could of easily fallen out.

Then it hit her "Does that mean you haven't bathed for a month?" he noise crinkling at the thought.

"Yup." he said nonchalantly.

"That is foul. You can use ours, if you want."

Before he could response, she heard Zeb calling her name. Running down the ramp back out side, she found Zeb looking for her.

"Sabine come inside, quick on the holonet. You ain't gonna believe this."

"What? Is it 'The Shape?'" her stomach dropping, like it did every time he came up.

"No, it's about Zann!"

* * *

A/N: Okay that's chapter, 4. Now if you want the next chapter quicker, make sure to review, otherwise it will be out this weekend.


	6. Chapter 5

AN: Okay, first thanks to everyone who reviewed, I truly appreciate it, we didn't hit ten, but it's the weekend so here's the next chapter.

Also, like the last Chapter I have the next chapter after this already written. I'll update this story if this chapter get's ten reviews, if not I will update it on Tuesday.

Also ,if you haven't noticed by now I'm trying a different approach with this story in terms of chapter length. In "Fly Now", I pretty much made the chapters as long I felt like, and In Underworld all my chapters hit a word count of around 5,000 words per chapter. With this one, excluding the prologue, I'm aiming for around 3,000 words per chapter.

Tell me what you think of this. With the smaller word count I am updating more regularly, but do you prefer the longer chapters or the shorter ones that come more frequently.

Well, onto the story.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 5

"Newly commissioned Captain of the Imperial Navy, Tyber Zann has been tasked with the hunt for and capture or otherwise eliminate 'The Shape'. Zann, who has in short order manage to severely reduce the crime rates in all systems he has been station in, has high hopes for the capture on 'The Shape'"

"How in the galaxy is he still alive?" Zeb said grinding his teeth.

They all looked at Ezra, who looked pale. "I didn't actually see it kill him...he was... he was cornered, and I could stop it... I ran." Ezra felt more shame than he thought he ever could. Not only was he admitting to cowardice, but it was lying about it to the people who mattered most to him. He was lying and telling them he was a coward, when in fact he had just let that thing kill him, or so he thought.

"Forget that for a minute, why in all the galaxy is he an Imperial Captain?" Sabine near shouted. She didn't want anyone to know, but at the news he was alive, she felt her heart soar, and her stomach sink. She was still clearly under his influence.

"What's more, how can he even be involved with the Empire at all? He's one of the most wanted men in galaxy, how can they publically make him a Captain?" Hera said rubbing her chin.

"The Empire can spin just about anything, they made the Jedi order out to be terrorists and traitors." Kanan said bitterly.

"It makes sense though, in a way." Zeb muttered "He did use to be Thrawn's top student before they kicked him out the Academy, and his time as a crime lord, he probably has all kinds of Intel on other criminal organization."

"Still though." Hera said wondering out loud "Why give him a commission? Or even enlist him at all?"

"Your guess is as good as anyone's Hera, but I think we have bigger problems than that. He knows we're here on Lothol, and he might be looking for revenge for what happened on Kamino." Kanan said. "We need to lie low until he moves on, we can't risk having him on our tails."

Ezra's stomach sank at this, other than himself, Zann was the only one who knew what happened between them on Kamino, he was going to be out for blood, he was certain of it.

"How did that thing not kill him." Ezra muttered more to himself than to anyone else. " I don't see that thing having anything in the way of mercy."

* * *

Dral stepped out of the refresher, clean and his face shaven except for a goatee he was attempting to grow in. It felt good to be clean, and frankly given his injury, he should of been cleaning it anyway.

Walking out into the main sitting room, he found the entire crew looking grim.

"You all look like you've seen a ghost." he said bluntly.

"Yeah you could say that." Zeb muttered, gesturing to the now mute Holonet.

"Tyber Zann, that's a nasty piece of work there, as bad as the Hutt's if you ask me." Dral said while looking at the image, something was off about. He stared for a few moments before realizing what it was he said "Why is he wearing an Imperial uniform?"

"Apparently they give out commissions to crime lords now." Zeb muttered "Next week, we will be hearing how Jabba of the Hutt became an Admiral."

Dral didn't get it. Zann was well known for a long standing hatred for the Empire, why would he ever join it? What's more why would they want him? He was one of the most wanted in the galaxy.

"Well we need to forget about Zann for now." Hera said standing up "We need to deal with that thing first. Zann knows what it is and knows it's real value to the Empire, what it's worth to them and he maybe one of the only people left in the galaxy who does as long as he kept his mouth shut."

Dral didn't know what possible use the "Shape" could be to the Empire, but he didn't much care. He was starting to want this whole ordeal over. After this job, he might retire, get some help. Things were getting worse for him and he was having a hard time hiding it. Sabine had found him twice, and that didn't bode well for him.

While the crew talked grimly about the news, Dral turned and left. He didn't really understand what they were talking about, but apparently that had a run in with the crime lord, or was it former crime lord?

On his ship he found his medication and took a pill. He didn't normally take it unless he felt and episode coming on, but he didn't want to chance it again. He's been lucky he hadn't killed Sabine during one of his fits, if he had, he friends would likely of murdered him in retaliation.

His minded drifted back to his youth, the time when it all happened. Hitting himself in the side of the head to stop himself from thinking about it, he went to work on his armor to distract himself.

Examining it, he noted the how cleanly the thing's blade had pierced it. His armor wasn't proper Mandalorian iron, and he really wished he could get some that was, but it was both rare and expensive, even if he found someone to make it for him, he probably wouldn't be able to afford it.

Grunting in annoyance, he started patching it as best he could.

* * *

He was screwed, he was so screwed. Zann was alive and now have Imperial backing. He'd come foe him sooner rather than later, and the other's were sure to find out what really happened.

He needed to come clean. But he couldn't at the same time. What would they say? What would they do?

Ezra put his head in his hands and started to rock back and forth in his seat.

* * *

Sabine just wished her life would go back to normal, or at least as close to normal as hers got. Zann was a complicated issue for her, because of what he had done to her, with the dammed experimentation.

For the first time in a couple days, she pulled out what she now knew was her father's helmet. She hadn't examined it in detail sense Dral had used it to track them. That was the one common thread in her life with all these things a happening. Her father, he had worked with Zann, was hunted by Dral, and had some connection to the facility where JV-FR13 was created.

Maybe it was the universe telling her it was time to try and find him. He was on Coruscant last anyone knew. Dral had mentioned it in passing and Tyber had mentioned it specifically.

But going there would be next to impossible right now. She needed more information if she was going to follow this to any end.

And there was only one person she knew right now who had been looking for him.

* * *

Dral cursed as he heard the tapping on the door "It's open!" he called.

He wasn't too surprised to find Sabine on his ship again. "What is it now?"

Sabine was a bit taken aback, she had been expecting some sort of comment, possibly some sort of flirt, but he was clearly still on edge.

"I wanted to talk to you about Atin Wren, my father."

"I don't have him on my ship, if I did I'd be gone."

"No I mean...where was he seen last?"

"Coruscant, that's his last known place of residence, but he's been off the grid for years, most people think he's dead."

Dral noticed the look on her face and stopped his work. "Look I ain't exactly the best with words, and I really don't know where your father is, there are rumors I've found floating around, but nothing concrete."

"Like what?" she said somewhat more eagerly than she meant to.

Dral sighed and said "I heard he took a job on Kamino for the Empire, never knew what it was supposed to be, probably to train their clone troopers, or what's left of what they still make. That is, of course if any of that is true"

Sabine felt her heart leap at this. Dral didn't know it, but that was a much more solid lead than he could ever know. It made sense, the helmet was in that facility, had her father lent or sold it to the empire for study? It raised more questions, but if her father was on Kamino training clone troopers, then he might still be there.

This thought made her stomach sink, if that was the case, they were on different sides of the war.

"Hey! You still their!" Dral's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "Is that it?"

"Yes, Dral thanks." she turned to leave, but felt his hand on her shoulder.

"Normally." He said "I charge for any service I render."

Sabine felt her blood run cold "What do you want?"

"Let's just say you owe me a favor." he said taking his hand off her shoulder.

Feeling like she got off easy, Sabine left his ship as fast as she could without insulting him.

* * *

As the day went on, Sabine walked through the field of grass, avoiding, at Kanan and Hera's suggestion, any towns for the time being.

Her thoughts kept going back to Dral. He scared her, not in terms of him being and intimidating individual, even though he was. No it was what was wrong with him. He was a Mandalorian like her, and there was a time in her life when being a Mandalorian had made her feel immune to things, like she couldn't be affected by things like a normal solider could be. But these recent encounters with Zann and Dral had that idea fly out the window. Her father had apparently been broken and Dral was suffering from an extremely strong case of PTSD.

She herself was screwed by Zann's drug. She realized now she was starting to come to terms with her own mortality, that to be Mandalorian didn't make you invincible.

She found herself wanting to talk to Dral again, to find out what happened to him. But she seriously doubted he'd open up, whatever had happened to him had left a huge impact on him.

Her life was so screwed up right now and she was just waiting for the days to pass, then Dral could try and capture JV-FR13, take him and go. Then Zann would leave and her life might gain some semblance of normality.

* * *

On board the Imperial Star Destroy "Shadow of Intent"

Tyber scowled as he monitored the information feed from Lothol. He hated this, serving the Empire. He'd have his due soon enough but right now, he didn't have a choice.

Picking up a vile of liquid, he put it in a syringe and injected it into his arm. The damn miracle drug had him begging the Empire for life. When the patrol found him he was bleeding internally, and Thrawn, ever qucik on his feet, had them inject him with the experimental drug. Saving his life.

But he didn't serve out of a sense of loyalty, but the damn drug had destroyed his own immune system. If he stopped taking it regularly he's die a particularly unpleasant way. He hadn't needed the drug to fix him, standard medical procedures would of work. But Thrawn wanted to humiliate him and this was the best way to do it, making him help the one organization he wanted to destroy.

Now they had his mind and his understand of the criminal underworld. They were wiping out other organization one by one, and while he had so far spared the Zann Consortium, it was only matter of time before Thrawn force him to act against is own organization. He had managed to tell Urai to go underground with as much Consortium's wealth and resources as he could to survive the oncoming storm.

But he's find a way out, soon he's find a way out. And he may be able to find a way to turn this to his advantage, wipe out the competition,

But right now, here on Lothol, he's get his pay back on Ezra for leaving him for that thing. What the rebels didn't know, or the Empire for that matter, he had an agent on the planet. One who would do the dirty work for him and get him his revenge.

Smirking at this thought, Tyber continued to monitor the information feed.

* * *

This was it. He needed to tell Kanan, if he didn't, when it came out it would be even worse. What was more, he couldn't keep lying to him.

He had asked Kanan to meet him here, in the field beyond the Ghost's normal parking spot to talk to him about something, although he hadn't told him what it was about.

"Ezra, I'm here, you wanna tell me what this was about?" Kanan's voice came from behind him.

Taking a deep breath Ezra turned to face Kanan, and briefly thought of just making up a lie. But no, he'd resolved to do this, and he would do it.

"Kanan...I need to tell you." he began slowly "On Kamino, I told you what a happen with Tyber and JV-FR13?"

Kanan nodded, not saying a word. Ezra didn't know it, but Kanan was expecting something along these lines. He had sensed something was wrong with Ezra ever sense the mission was over.

"I've been lying about what happened. Kanan, Tyber was pinned under some wreckage, the place was falling apart and that thing was coming. Kanan I left him their for that thing, he asked for my help and I left him I didn't panic and run, it wasn't that I couldn't save him, Kanan it's that I wouldn't, I wanted that thing to finish him off after all he'd done." Now that he was going Ezra found himself having a hard time stopping, and probably would of continued on in this manner if Kanan hadn't silenced him.

"Ezra, this is serious." he said, his face grim. "You let your emotion get the better of you, and because of that, you left a man to be murdered."

Ezra's eye's fell to his feet. "I understand it Ezra, what he did, it was inexcusable, but when you behave like him, you aren't giving out justice, you are just filling the galaxy with more injustice."

Ezra didn't completely understand, but his own miserable mood didn't do much to help his attention span. Kanan picked up on this.

"Ezra, when you do what you did, you leave yourself open to the Darkside, letting darker emotions like revenge guide your actions. You have to be careful. You can't let hate and anger guide your actions."

Ezra was starting to get it, and he was surprised Kanan was telling him this and not shouting at him for leaving a man to be murdered.

"Are you going to tell the other's?"

Kanan still scowling gritted his teeth "No, if you want to tell them you can, but it has to be up to you."

"I thought." Ezra said suddenly "I thought it would cure Sabine if he was gone, he wouldn't be able to influence here anymore." as he said it Ezra noticed this sounded like a desperate attempt to excuse his actions.

Kanan was clearly having conflicting emotions about the news Ezra has given him. He had suspected something, but nothing quite this dark. Part of the problem he was having was he agreed on some level with what Ezra had done. When he found out Zann had used Sabine like a guinea pig, he had seriously considered killing him. But he was the teacher and he needed to guide Ezra down the correct path, and revenge was not it.

"Ezra." Kanan began his voice softer than before "I understand why you did it, I really do, but you have to understand why it's not the way we do things that way. We can't go down to that level, otherwise, the whole reason for fighting the Empire, fighting against what they do loses meaning. We can't go to their level, we can't seek revenge. Do you understand?" he finished putting his hand on Ezra's shoulder.

Ezra looked up at Kanan and nodded "Yes Kanan, I understand."

* * *

Dral wanted to sleep, but he was scared to. His medication wasn't working properly anymore, the tremors where coming back and the memories were leaking into his thoughts, even when he was taking his medicine. This was bad, he's never had this happened before in his life, he didn't even know it could happen.

He was so tired, but he didn't dare try to sleep now, even with his medicine he was close to an episode while awake, if he dreamed, it would come back in full force. He didn't want to relive it, he couldn't, he wouldn't, no matter what if he could help it.

Pacing on the ship, he walked down the ramp and started pacing the area between the Ghost and his own ship. It was dark and everyone on the Ghost had fallen asleep.

"Dral, what are you doing?" a voice said behind him.

Spinning on his heels, hand on his knife, Dral saw Sabine, looking like she just woke up, then he remembered she probably just had.

"Trying not to sleep." he muttered.

"Why?"

He looked at her for a moment, remembering she already knew to some degree what his problem was. "I can't fall asleep, if I do I'll dream, if I dream...well you already know, well sort of."

Sabine couldn't help but feel sorry for the man. His crass nature aside, he was clearly suffering so severe trauma to affect him so badly.

"You want to talk about it?"

Dral looked her up and down, considering her proposition. Normally he would never talk about, but right now he was at his wit's end. He didn't need to tell her everything, just enough to satisfy her apparent curiosity, then he might be able to get some sleep and she would stop wondering what it was. This thought came to him and left in an instant. No, he couldn't let anyone know anything, not even the smallest part.

"No, but if you could..." he had an idea that might keep him from going into a total flashback, and he looked highly embarrassed about it "come with me to my ship."

He looked her in the eye, and she looked incredibly hesitant before reluctantly say "Alright."

* * *

Dral lead her to his bunk, the bed was larger than the one's on the Ghost, although sense this was a single passenger ship, it made sense in a way.

"Dral, I don't know what you think I'm gonna do, but I'll tell you." She started before he cut her off.

"Just...just sit here while I fall asleep, near, it helps if I have someone I think I can trust next to me when I fall asleep, it helps keep the memories from coming."

This took her aback a little bit "You think you can trust me?"

"Your little rebel crew are probably the most trust worthy people on the planet." he said "So will you do it?"

She was about to say no, but a look at his desperate and haggard face pulled at her heart strings. "Fine, I'll stay until you fall asleep."

He grunted something that might of been 'thanks', as he climbed into his bunk, Sabine sitting at the head of the bunk where his head was.

It didn't take long for Dral to drift off to sleep, he was clearly run ragged. Sabine watched him for a little while and noted that he looked much more peaceful than the last two time's she had seen him, sleep, much more like when he had first drifted off after his first with JV-FR13, which she remembered had been with her and Ezra around.

Before she was even aware of doing so, she had drifted off to sleep herself, slumped against the wall of the bunk.

* * *

AN: Okay please leave a review. Remember, at ten reviews I will update it that day. If not, I'll still see you on Tuesday.


	7. Chapter 6

AN:Okay, this a few hours early, but I wanted to get it up becasue I have to work tomorrow so here's the next chapter.

Same deal as before, I have the next chapter written, if I get ten reviews, I upload it early, if not, I'll upload it this weekend.

Frankly I don't expect to hit that number, but I really like having a bit of a buffer zone to keep by chapter's ahead of schedule.

Well, onto the story.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm

* * *

Chapter 6

Kallus had seen a number of horrific killings in his time, it came with the job, and he himself had committed his fair share of "extermination" jobs in his time. But this thing the media had dubbed "The Shape." was different.

The most recent killing had all the hallmarks of the previous killings. It was a messy affair, the man was a brute and undisciplined in his methods. From what Kallus could tell, without fail, every victim had been killed with a single decisive blow. The very best that could be said about these deaths were they were apparently quick.

That's what bothered him though. If these attacks were personal or for revenge, you wouldn't expect them to be so quick. This was methodical, like it was just killing at random, for the sake of killing. It wasn't that he hadn't ever seen it before, but he's never seen a case such as this where the perpetrator went so long without being either killed himself or getting caught.

Ever sense he had started to head the investigation he had the distinct feeling they were dealing with something more than a simple spree-killer. This was something more, exactly what Kallus didn't know.

* * *

Ezra awoke with a start. The dream had come again, Tyber and the Shape. This didn't make sense! Tyber wasn't even dead and he had told Kanan what had happened. Why was the damn dream still coming.

Rubbing his hands over his face to try and wake himself up, to try and think more clearly. He had confessed to Kanan, but his guilt didn't seem to abate. Granted Kanan had not taken the information well, not Ezra had expected him to, but he was handling it in a way that Ezra hadn't expected.

Kanan seemed colder than usual. more distant. He didn't outright ignore him, but it was like he had a hard time reconciling with himself what Ezra had done.

This was the worst he could remember feeling ever sense he joined the crew. He not only felt like he had let Kanan down, but that he had in a way betrayed his own ideals. He had never been that cold blooded in his life.

Yet he hadn't even managed to do that right. Zann was now back with Imperial backing, and that was one of the worst combinations he'd ever seen in his life. But, he supposed it made life less nuanced, now he was unequivocally the enemy, no more guess work there.

Ezra couldn't help but groan at the fact that this thought was the best that could be said about the current situation. He was hunting JV-FR13, so maybe it would finish him off.

Ezra never had considered his life easy when he was living on the streets, but it had never been this complicated.

Getting up, Ezra for the first time in a long time, found he did not have a clue what he was going to actually do.

* * *

The first thing Sabine became aware of was the pain in her back. It was the type of pain associated with being caught in an uncomfortable position for too long. It was stiff and hurt so back she, for a moment didn't think she'd be able to move.

The next thing she realized, as she opened her eye's was where she was. It took her a moment to remember she had agreed to watch Dral.

Standing up quickly, and stumbling into the wall do to the stiffness in her back, she realized she had fallen asleep. She didn't know how long it had been, but she was hungry so it must of been a decent amount of time later.

Looking over her shoulder, she noticed Dral's bunk was empty. The fact that he couldn't of bothered to lie her down, or at least wake her up irked her. She had done him a favor, and he couldn't repay her by simply helping her avoid a stiff back.

Well what had she expected, he was, well she didn't know what he was exactly. She wasn't sure how much of his attitude was an act to cover his problem and how much was genuine. She suspected it landed somewhere in the middle, that he exaggerated his personality to deflect people from his issues, but she was fairly certain that at least some of his actions were genuine.

Wondering where he had gotten off to, she left his bunk and searched the ship for him. His ship was smaller than the Ghost, but it still took a moment to find him. He was in what Sabine supposed would be the sitting room if the ship was in normal order. Right now it looked like a mix between storage room and scrap pile. Piece of different machines and droids were strewn about the room and several crate were stacked to the ceiling.

He was changing the patches on his injury. He already had the one in the front changed, but was having problems with the one on his back.

Catching sight of her, he called out "Mind givin' me a hand?"

Crossing her arms, Sabine scowled "Well, I could but seeing how you couldn't be bothered to wake me up, I think I should let you struggle."

"What?!" he said stating to laugh, and grin. "You looked so peaceful, like a little angel, didn't want to disturb you."

This was more like the man she had meet a few days ago, she supposed a good night's sleep could do wonders, although she had missed out on one herself.

"You know what, yeah I can help." she said with smirk starting to grace her face, taking the bacta patch out of his hand, and slapping it hard onto the still relatively fresh injury.

Dral yelled in pain, jumping up "What was that for?"

"Really, were not you not paying attention to what I just said?"

Dral scratched his scruffy chin, pretending to think.

"You know what, I'm gonna leave before you can say something clever." and with that she walked past him as briskly as she could with her back still aching.

"Hold on." Dral's tone seemed much quieter or more subdued than normal.

Despite her better judgment, she stopped and turned to face him, he wasn't smiling anymore, he wasn't even looking directly at her, his eyes were cast down, as if trying to avoid her gaze.

"Thanks for...well last night. I haven't been...sleeping." It seemed like thanking her was actually causing him physical pain. She thought about letting him struggle on for al little while longer, but decided against it.

"It's alright, let's just call it even for the information you gave me. Just forget about it."

Dral shuffled on his feet for a moment before nodding. She nodded back and turned to walk down the ramp to leave.

"So you want to go out with me yet!" he called back, traces of laughter in his voice.

"Don't push your luck!" she called over her shoulder, and despite herself, smiled a little.

* * *

Sitting down in the pilot's chair in his ship, Dral closed his eyes to concentrate on his implant to read his own healing progress. He frowned at what it told him, it would still be sometime before he would be completely healed, but on the brightside he'd be capable of taking on the job in a day or two. While he wouldn't be in top condition, he'd be well enough to stand up to the physical strain.

He grinned at the prospect of getting even with "The Shape" after it stabbed him. With a full night's sleep, a full night's good sleep, he was capable of thinking more clearly. He personally he regretted having the girl watch him sleep, it made him feel like he was five years old again. But it was the only way he knew how to cope with it without severe medication. What he took now wasn't working anymore but he didn't dare try and of the stronger medication available, not while he was on the job anyway. The potential side effects could be catastrophic in the field.

His mind wondered back to "The Shape". He hated admitting to fear, but that thing scared him. It looked like a man, but no man in the galaxy could survive two spikes to the brain, let alone the electric charge he unloaded into him.

Freezing him would work, he was sure of that. It had blood, and if it bleed, well then it was alive. Meaning it had water in it, and it would render it immobile. No the problems he was foreseeing were finding it. From all the information he's ever had on it, it lived completely off the grid, so he' either have to do detective work or find a spot to stake out to wait for him. He was particularly good at either, he didn't have the patients for them, he worked best in the heat of the moment.

The other problem was what they would do with it when they were done. They could keep him frozen indefinitely if they wanted to, but he didn't doubt that thing would garner a huge some from genetic researchers, something that ...unique would at the very least be hailed as a great curisoity, at most a living weapon.

Dral's immediate thoughts were to sell him. He's bring enough credits for him to live the rest of his life like a Hutt.

But he dismissed the idea, for no other reason he doubted he could sell the story of an indestructible man. He wasn't going to risk a live demonstration, he'd have to thaw him for that, and if even half the stories about it were true, then he probably wouldn't want to risk that.

The pay from the Moff's and the Rebels friends would be substantial enough, he told himself. And it would, but Dral made it his business try and get as much money out of a contract as he could.

Sighing, he opened his eyes. It took him a moment to adjust to the light levels. He needed to start to get ready, in a couple days, he'd be on the hunt.

* * *

"Captain Zann's efforts on the crime levels of Lothol have been astounding. Criminal activity has dropped to almost zero planet wide thanks to..."

Kanan could take it anymore. The lies and propaganda the Empire would spin out was amazing at times. Zann may in fact be reducing crime planet wide, but he seriously doubted it was due to a excellent criminal justice system. It hadn't even been a day and he was being hailed as hero by the Empire. But they had messed up and tried to make it appear like he was a resounding success to soon.

He understood why they did it, but they had jumped the gun. With JV-FR13 killing at random and the Empire unable to control or subdue him, they needed a new figure to make them look good, as the current administration was failing to stop it.

But the people of Lothol weren't as stupid as the Empire thought. They'd pick up on this attempt to save face quick. He also seriously doubted that Zann had served in any other system before Lothol, and as such didn't reduce crime anywhere.

But the whole situation bothered him. Zann was well documented as full on Empire hater. His hatred for the Empire was second to none, even the Rebel's didn't hate it in the personal way Zann did. He treated it like a personal grudge and did all he could to disrupt it and hurt it. There wasn't anything that Kanan could think of that would make him switch sides, anything short of blackmail.

But even that didn't make sense to him. What could they have on him to force him to work for them rather than against them. Zann didn't strike Kanan as someone who had loved ones that could be held hostage, at least one's he cared about enough to sacrifice his own criminal empire.

It was all too much to think about in addition to everything else they had going on right now.

Ezra had severally disappointed him, and it in fact out right scared him what he had done. He understood the feeling, but not the action. It was as near cold blooded murder as it could get without being directly involved. By not helping Tyber, in his mind Ezra had sentenced him to a horrible death.

But this brought up the question in Kanan's mind, was Tyber worth saving. As a Jedi he was taught all life was sacred, but he was also taught that sometimes, killing was unavoidable. Was leaving Tyber to die really different than if Ezra had killed him in a fight?

Yes, is what he told himself, although he couldn't quite explain why to himself. Any of the explanations he gave himself didn't seem to truly ease his mind. Was it that Tyber was helpless at the time that Kanan felt so betrayed by Ezra's action? Maybe that was part of it, but he could feel it in his gut that wasn't the whole reason.

What was really scaring him though, was he wasn't sure if Ezra had been wrong. He was supposed to be the master, he was supposed to have the answers Ezra needed, but here he was, just as conflicted as his apprentice.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be, this wasn't how he was supposed to be.

* * *

Ezra heard Dral's voice come from his ship.

""So you want to go out with me yet!"

Then he heard Sabine call back "Don't push your luck!" and he saw the smile on her face, and anger seethed in him.

"What were you doing with Dral!" Ezra said, his voice coming out much quicker and more aggressive than he intended it to.

Sabine jumped a little at the sudden voice, she had not noticed Ezra while she had excited Dral's ship.

"Oh, Ezra, I was just helping Dral change the dressing on his injury, he was having problems getting to his back."

There was more to it than that, he could feel it. Was she interested in the bounty hunter? How could she be? He was fowl, dirty and mean spirited.

"Really? That's all?" he said, his voice heavy with accusations.

Sabine looked confused as this, "Ezra? Is something wrong?"

He didn't want to deal with the possibility of Sabine dating one of the most disgusting men in he had ever had the misfortune to meet.

"I've gotta go." he said with a huff and stomped off.

"Ezra!" she called after him, but he was already some distance away by this time. He was half hoping she'd follow him, but also half hoping she'd leave him alone. Right now he wasn't sure what he wanted. He'd confessed to Kanan, but it hadn't relieved his conscience and now Kanan had become distant and cold.

He wanted to talk to someone who would understand, but didn't think there was anyone who really would understand his situation.

This sudden realization, made him feel crushingly lonely. This made him stop dead in his tracks. Looking around, he suddenly realized he'd made his way much further away from the Ghost than he had intended to. In his emotional state he'd lost track of time and now the Ghost wasn't even in site.

Well he wanted to be alone and now he had it. Walking over to a fairly large rock in the sea of grass, he climbed on top of it, sat down, pulled his knees to his chest, folded his arms over her knees, and put his head down between his arms.

* * *

Tyber scowled at the newsfeed. Whoever was in charge of propaganda was going to need to be replaced. They were far too eager to make him look like a perfect law enforcer. While he had made some quick headway in the area of law enforcement, it wasn't anywhere near the levels be praised in the news.

He needed to get this out of his head for the moment. He needed to get this meeting over with.

Pressing a button on the panel he said into the comm "Send in Agent Kallus."

The Imperial Agent came in with all the military decorium, brisk walk, firm salute, everything.

"Agent, tell me everything you know about 'The Shape'." he really didn't expect to learn much, his own information on the thing far outstripped Kallus, but it would be useful to know what it was up to.

"Sir, he doesn't seem to act on anything other basic instincts." Kallus said in a firm tone "None of his victims are connected , and he dispatches them in a quick but brutal manner."

Tyber wasn't impressed, he could of gussed as much, but it didn't hurt to know. "I want a full report by tomorrow, the victims names, manner of death, everything."

Kallus saluted and said "Yes, sir." and turned and left.

"The Shape's" killing spree was the least of his concerns at the moment, what he really wanted was the Rebels, more specifically the young Jedi, Ezra for what he'd done to him. No one crossed him and lived, no one.

He'd have his revenge, his agent was on his tail and soon he's kill the boy. If Ezra was lucky, it'd be quick, but if Tyber was lucky, it wouldn't be. The very thought, the very memory of what had happened on Kamino set his blood boiling. He always prized himself reading people, on knowing how to manipulate them, know how they would react. Ezra has surprised him and acted completely in the opposite of what he thought he would. That alone was enough to irritate him, but the fact the boy had left him to be murdered by that thing, that was going to far.

He would have his revenge on him, and maybe he'd kill the rest of the rebels to for good measure. This made his thought go to Sabine, the daughter of the woman he had once loved, back when he still could love. He wasn't sure if he could bring himself to kill her, but he didn't think he could let her live if he killed or harmed any of her friend. She may be under his influence still, but he hadn't yet tested that control against someone in a murderous rage.

It was all the boy's fault, he's brought about this conflict with his foolish actions. They boy would have to pay for this, and pay dearly.

* * *

AN: Okay, please leave a review, If I get enough, you'll get the next chapter early.


	8. Chapter 7

AN: Okay, this one is a little later than was planned but here it is.

The method I have been using, with the next chapter being done at the time of current publication can't continue. I had a power surge at my house and I lost several completed chapter's, this one was only pared because I had it saved online. So, yeah, I lost quite a bit of progress, it will take some time to catch up again.

But that aside at least this chapter is up so here it is, I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 7

"Okay so as you can see from this map of his attack's." Hera said to everyone in attendance, which included the entire crew plus Dral "That he is not following any pattern, he hit's at random. But we can gleam from this that he is staying in the same general location." She gestured to the map again " He is staying within the general city limits when he attacks, and the Empire is having no luck finding him in the city. They've only had any real search parties look in the surrounding country side." Zooming in on the outskirts of the city, she showed on of Lothol's few forested areas.

Lothol's landmass was dominated by mountains and grasslands, but there were a few sparse wooded areas on the planet, and this area was one of the larger ones, pockmarked with several small lakes. It ran from the outskirts of the city to the foot of the nearby mountain range. The forest didn't have a name, it was a fairly recent addition to Lothol, the tree's were brought along, some by accident as seeds, with the first settlers of Lothol. Some where planted as saplings to help form a wind breaking barrier and keep excess water flow from the mountains drowning crops. But it had grown out of control and now reached to the mountains.

"So." Dral said to himself more than anyone "He's probably hold up in that forest."

"That's out best guess, we're figuring he comes out when he's on one of his hunts and retreats back when he's done, and it's surprising smart, given what we know about him. The foliage would make spotting him from the air almost impossible so the only way any will find him is on foot, which the Imperial's are not too keen to try." Hera said turning the projection off.

Dral made an extremely loud groan of annoyance. He was going to have to hunt the damn thing down on foot. That would entail lugging the Cryo-gun around for an undetermined amount of time, and that thing wasn't exactly light.

"Well, no time like the present. Let's get a move on." Dral said getting to go retrieve his equipment. "I'll be ready in about thirty minutes."

Walking off to his own ship, he mentally noted he should take his medicine, a double dose, to make sure he didn't have an episode during the mission.

Strapping on as many weapons and explosives as he could without hindering his movement. he went to heft up the cryo-gun. It was at this time he noticed Sabine, looking at him, arms crossed.

"Are you sure you're up to this?" her voice skeptical. "I don't want you having flashbacks while were out there."

Dral frowned but shook his medication bottle, letting the pills rattle around. "Took a double dose, not really supposed to, but it should keep me from... well it should keep me in line."

She didn't look completely convinced, but now that the time had come, she didn't seem to want the entire plan done away with.

Hefty the cryo-gun up he said "Let's go."

* * *

"Okay, keep you comm-links on." Hera said as she landed the Ghost to let the ground party, or in this case, everyone else, to enter the forest. "I'll be waiting for you to finish for the pick up."

Kanan, Ezra, Sabine, Zeb and Dral walked down the ramp. Dral had his helmet on again, scanned the forest with both his helmet's inbuilt sensors and his implant, hoping that the engine noise would of drawn the "Shape" in, no such luck.

"Okay, Dral, this is your party, how do you think we should proceed." Kanan said in a tone he'd listen to what Dral had to say, but didn't plan on following what he said if it clashed with his own personal ideas.

"Well, normally in the holodrama's, this is the part where we split up and get killed off one by one, we aren't splitting up."

Kanan nodded, apparently this is was what he was thinking as well "Wouldn't make sense anyway, you're the only one with the cryo-gun.

"I want a fifty meter spread, stay in contact." He point to Sabine and Ezra, "You two take the left." gesturing to Kanan and Zeb, he said "You two the right, I'll go up the middle, call out if you find the thing and I'll come and freeze the sucker."

"Wait I thought you said we weren't splitting up?!" Ezra near shouted.

"We aren't, we're spreading the group out, not splitting it up, we won't be so far away from each other that if one gets in trouble we can't help, now shut up and get going."

Ezra was about shout something back, but a quick look from Kanan told him not to pursue the issue.

Huffing he went off.

"It the kid's time of the month or somthin'?" Dral said as he started to move forward.

No one laughed at the joke, not even Dral. Now that they were here, the tension was starting to make them all much more serious, even Dral.

* * *

"When, I'm done with this job, I'm gonna go find someplace where I won't be stabbed. I'm gonna ...I'm gonna." Dral muttered to himself, slowing down, clenching her stomach. Tapping his comm he said "Everyone hold up, take five."

He didn't hear their response and slumped against one of the trees. Pulling off her helmet he gasped for breath. He was regretting the decision to take to this so quickly after his injury. He knew he wasn't healed, but he didn't think he'd suffer this much from fatigue.

After resting for a few minutes, he started to take several deep breaths and put his helmet back on. "Okay." he said looking at the timer in his helmet. "Time to keep moving."

* * *

Ezra walked on the fringe of the line, watching for any movement. Or at least as best he could with his mind so fogged with so many thoughts. Kanan's attitude after he told him what had happened made him feel alienated. Then Sabine was getting to friendly with Dral for his taste. He was sure it was their shared heritage, but that had to be it, they were nothing alike.

Dral was crass and disgusting, Sabine wasn't exactly lady like but she was crude or rude. But he'd noticed that in the short time Dral had been around, Sabine had been around him for a fairly good amount of time. Granted he didn't think she was acting overtly fond of him, but that time he saw her coming off his ship and laughing at his attempt to ask her out. This plagued his mind ever sense he saw it, even if there wasn't anything to it.

While these thoughts rumbled around in his head, they were interrupted by the return of a familiar voice telling him to "Run."

* * *

Zeb felt his heart rate increase, sanding fifty meters ahead of him was "The Shape", it's back to him.

"Kanan, Dral I've got him in my sights, Fifty meters ahead. What's the plan."

"Stay put." Dral's voice came over the comm, whispering. "Everyone else, keep moving forward and sweep around, we're gonna surround him, then I'll hit him with the cryo-gun."

"Roger that, holding position." Zeb said into the comm, leveling his blaster at the things back. It was weird, it was just standing there, staring off at something Zeb couldn't see.

Then it titled his head to the side and turned around, and looked Zeb right in the eye.

* * *

Moving as fast as he could without making an excessive amount of noise. Then he heard blaster rifle fire.

"Well." He thought to himself picking up to a full run "It was to much to hope for that it would go perfectly."

As the thing came into sight he saw it walking towards Zeb. Not running, walking, near completely unfazed by the blaster fire.

Sneering, Dral launched one of the cryo-grenades at the thing. It hit "The Shape" in the back and thumped to the ground. This caused it to turn and look at Dral. Then it started towards him. Then the grenade exploded, unleashed a huge cloud of vapor, completely obscuring the thing from view.

Then Dral felt his blood run cold as it came marching out. It's mask and blade were completely covered in frost and his clothing was lightly frosted as well. It was in range of the main gun now and Dral let him have it.

"Yeah!" he shouted as it streamed out, obscuring the thing again, but it kept coming. Dral unleashed a stream again, causing more ice to form on it. Pumping the under slung grenade launcher and loading another round. Launching this in tandum with another stream, a much bigger cloud of vapor appeared, one big enough to force Dral to take a step back to avoid it.

And it emerged again, but this time moving in jerking and slower motions. Dral stepped back again as it Raised it's blade high over its head, ready to strike, and unleashed another stream on it, this time not letting up, even as it tried to bring the blade down. It's movements slowed down, and finally...stopped.

Dral took a step back and looked over the thing, it was now coated in a thick layer of ice. Not wanted to take any chances, he shot it again with a long stream, building up the ice even more.

Seeing it would be frozen for a sometime, Dral spat on the ground next to it and shouted "Yeah! No one can beat me!" he shouted as he strutted around the frozen target.

Zeb came up behind the frozen monster, looking at it skeptically, as if not sure it would be held up so easily. After seeing how much ice it was coated in he breathed a sigh of relief. "Well, looks like you weren't so full of hot air." Looking over at Dral's showboating he sighed, "Well not entirely anyway,"

* * *

Kanan, Ezra and Sabine came onto the scene to see a large frozen JV-FR13, and exasperated looking Zeb, and Dral who cursing and bad talking at the frozen man.

"Well I'll be dipped, it worked." Kanan said scratching his head.

"What you doubted me?" Dral said, taking his helmet off and smirking at their face. When none of them responded, he just looked at "The Shape." "We'll need to bring him back to my ship so I can turn him in, and then there is matter of your own payment."

Kanan didn't do or say anything to Dral counter to his idea of the idea he's be collecting both rewards, they were going to need him until they got JV-FR13 to a facility to hold him. But he didn't plan on letting him turn that thing back into the Empire.

"Hera, we're ready for pick up." he was just meet with static. "Hera, report, we've got the target, we need e-vac." still more static.

Then he got a response, but it wasn't the voice he wanted to here. The voice was a familiar cool and arrogant voice he hoped to never hear again.

"I'm afraid Hera isn't available, but don't worry, I'll be there to pick you up, don't you worry,"

Everyone in the group, even Dral looked concerned.

"Was that?" Ezra said, gulping.

"Yes." Kanan said, his face hardening "Tyber Zann."

Before they could think what to do, TIE fighters were flying over head, firing into the forest around them.

* * *

At first Sabine was glad for standard Imperial poor marksmanship with the TIE fighters, but then her heart sank. They were hitting their target, the surrounding woods. They were encircled in a ring of fire. They were trapped, and the heat was near cooking them alive.

Looking up several gunships came to hover over them, with one coming to land in the clearing. Out markched a whole platoon of Storm Troopers, flanking none other than Tyber Zann himself.

Sabine felt all her old mixture of feelings come rushing back. Her obsession and hate all rolled into one.

"Hello, my old friends, nice running into each other isn't it?" he said marching past the Storm Troopers, stopping by the Frozen JV-FR13, looking it over, then taking a few steps forwards.

Wiping his brow of sweat he looked to the group "Zeb, Kanan you are looking well." they both just sneered at him.

Turning to Ezra he said "My my my, Ezra, you should are looking...whole and well."

That was an incredibly odd thing to say, was what Sabine thought. Then he turned to her, looked at her for a moment, then he looked to Dral, not saying anything to her.

"I'm afriad I don't know you."

"I'm Dral Rahm...I'm...new."

Tyber looked him over then said "Regardless, you have two choice, come quietly or be gunned downed. You can't escape through the fire, I've already had my troops ignite the forst for two miles around, only the fireships I've brough along are keeping this patch from going up. So what you're choice?"

Sabine looked around, noticing that there were indeed several fire ships keeping the now raging blaze from coming in to close, but even they wouldn't be able to hold it off for long.

Dral spoke first, which didn't surprise her, he never seemed to stop running his mouth. "How about this, you turn your prissy little ass around, and I won't shove this..." he was cut off with the sound of blaster fire, and he went to the ground in a heap.

Looking to Tyber, he trade mark blaster had vapor coming out of the barrel.

Dral was cursing and rolling onto his knee's doubled over in pain. "Next time you talk, I'll use lethal force. So what is it?"

"Well." Kanan said "I'd be more willing to go with you if you were going to live through this little encounter."

Tyber laughed a harsh bark of a laugh "You going to kill me Jedi? You'll be gunned down before you get two steps."

"No, not me, but the big guy behind you is thawing pretty nicely thanks to your little fire, and he doesn't play nice with others."

Tyber rasied his eyebrow, and turned in time to see JV-FR13 break free of the ice. Tyber turned to face him, but didn't raise his blaster as it raised its blade to cut him in half. What he did raise was his hand and say "Stop." in his cool voice.

To Sabine's great shock, it did. Stopping mid swing, it lowered its blade and just looked at Tyber.

"How!?" Kanan shouted. In his confusion one of the Storm Troopers hit him with a stun blast. Before she knew what had happened, Zeb and Ezra were hit as well and being dragged off to the transport along with Dral, who was still crumpled over in pain.

Only Sabine was spared the stun bolts. She looked at Tyber as he approached her, JV-FR13 following him like a shadow. "How...why does it listen..." she sputtered out. Tyber just raised a familiar ring, the one he used to inject her and Ezra with his brainwashing drug.

"Please come quietly Sabine, I'd rather not have to take you by force."

For one mad moment she considered fighting, but she realized it would do any good, just get her stunned at best, killed at work. Putting her hands out, Tyber placed a pair of restraining cuffs on her wrist.

* * *

The ride was silent and tense. The entire crew was now cuffed in the transport, those who had been stunned were starting to come to, groaning and shaking off the affects of the stunners.

Sabine looked at from them to Dral, who hadn't been stunned, but really hadn't needed to be, he was still reeling from the blaster shot Tyber had hit him with. If it hadn't been for his armor and the fact Tyber clearly turned down the power, the blast would of killed Dral out right.

"Dral, how are you, you okay?"

"I got shot." he groaned out, and apparently that was all he felt needed saying.

Ezra groaned as he shook off grogginess. He looked around the transport and in sudden panic tried to stand before he realized he was now restrained, resulting in his motion resulting in nothing more than a jerking movement.

"Where..." he began, looking around the transport, slowly coming to himself.

"Tyber's transport ship, he stunned all of you, we're in cuffs, don't try to get out, even if you do theirs nowhere to go."

"So we what? Just let them take us?"

Kanan, who had just shaken off his cobwebs spoke next "We're already taken Ezra, we have to wait for the right chance to get out of this."

Slowly calming down Ezra sat back in his seat, breathing deeply.

"You all got me into this mess." Dral groaned out "I should of just left this dirt ball when I didn't find that old drunk. Now I'm gonna die in an Imperial cell. If I'm lucky they just put one in my head and put me out of my misery."

"Ohhh, stop it with the pity party!" Zeb growled out "You can't give up, not yet, we're gonna need everyone we can to get out of this."

Dral let out a long sign and took a deep breath and rested his back against the wall "You know what, I don't think so, maybe I'm ready to die, put an end to the mess of a life of mine, maybe things are better on the other side."

"Wow, good job keeping the moral up." Ezra said sarcastically. This earned him a kick from Sabine. Ezra wasn't aware of Dral's condition, and granted she didn't really fully understand it, but the last thing they needed was for him to slip into another episode of his. At best they would just kill him, at worst they would just open fire on all of them if he started acting up. What's more she wasn't overtly fond of how he'd been acting lately.

If they were going to get out of this, they were going to need everyone in the best possible condition.

* * *

"You want to look at something else? Maybe not stare at me with those haunting eye's?" Tyber said to JV-FR13. The damn thing creeped him out, it just looked at him, standing perfectly still, not making a single noise. You wouldn't even know it was there if you weren't looking at it.

He was frankly surprised that the serum even worked on it. It was designed for use on humans, and while it was mostly human, it's genetic code was some mixed up it probably should of worked at all. He figured that it was probably do to the fact it already had some sort of attempted mind control elements in its system.

It complied with what he said, but only in the vaguest fashion. It wasn't looking at him anymore, but it didn't leave. It hadn't managed to kill Ezra while on the planet, but now he was glad it failed, now he was in his hands, he'd get to do it himself.

This thing wasn't smart, but he could tell it was thinking something when it looked at him, and that unsettled him, it didn't talk or communicate with him, and he couldn't figure out what it was thinking. And if there was one thing Tyber didn't like it was feeling like he wasn't in complete control.

* * *

The man was here now, his voice no longer in his head, but in person. But he was stopping him now, not letting him have his revenge. He needed to make them all pay, but the man wouldn't let him, but he couldn't stop him from controlling him.

The boy was so near but he couldn't kill him, make him pay. And the fire was burning hotter in his mind, the control the man had over him was weakening, his voice grew quieter even now while he was here in front of him.

Soon he would be free.

* * *

AN: Okay, tell me what you think. Please leave a review.


	9. Chapter 8

AN: Okay, here is the next chapter. It's later than I wanted it, but given how I lost so much progress I was in a bit of a funk afterwards.

On another note. I'm working on two Stories other than this one right now. I won't publish either until this one is complete but I want to know which one my readers would be more interested in reading first, they are both Star Wars Rebels stories.

"Strong Now"

This is a sequel to "Fly Now" my first story. This one is what I considered the known quantity of the two, as it is a sequel with elements my reader are already familiar with. The other story I'm working on is

"In Zod we Trust" (Working Title)

This will mark my first attempt at a cross over, the title tells you with what other media. This is the unknown quantity or wild card as it is not a sequel or related to my previous works, as well as a cross over with a media type I haven't tried to write yet. It's also the one you as the reader will have less information on, and I am intentionally not mentioning the other media in use, but I'm certain most people can figure it out.

Well, tell me what you think of those options in your reviews, or send me a PM if you want. Do you want the known quantity or for me to give you something different? Both stories will be written, but I'm asking which one you want to see first.

Now onto the next chapter.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 8

* * *

"Enjoy your stay!" a trooper said as he threw Ezra into a cell. Stumbling to the wall opposite the door, Ezra braced himself against it, keeping himself from falling.

Looking around the small cell, Ezra felt the isolating affect. The only thing in it was a single bench and nothing else. There was no window or even proper lighting. The single light flickered, which he felt was intentional. The temperature was much higher than it should be as well. This was all tell tale signs of one thing, they were trying to break him mentally. Making him uncomfortable and isolating him, they were going to try and put him off his game and make him irritated and irrational.

Sitting down on the bench, Ezra closed his eyes and tried to meditate.

* * *

Sabine was lead into her cell, with significantly more gentle handling than she expected, although they still shoved her in with a fair amount of force. Looking around her cell, she found the bed and sat down. All alone, she found herself worrying about her friends. Tyber had not made the same mistake so many other Imperials would have. He was intentionally separating them so they couldn't plan an escape.

She didn't know if it showed some level of respect for them, that he wasn't under estimating them, or if he was just doing it to torture them, maybe a bit of both.

But what she kept finding herself wondering about was JV-FR13, that it was under Tyber's control. Did that mean all the killings were on his order's or was it doing so on its own. Neither idea was particularly appealing, it meant either Tyber was indiscriminately killing people or the thing wasn't completely under his control, meaning that it might go another one of its rampages while they were here.

Stripped of their weapons, their ship taken, an all of them in prison cell's, they were in it deep now. No way to call for help, and no real way to escape, Sabine was not sure how they were doing to get out of this situation, or even if they could.

* * *

The first thing Dral was completely aware of after being shot was waking up in his cell. Before that he only had scattered memories of what transpired after he had been shot. When he had finally come to, he was slumped against the wall of his cell, stripped of his armor, leaving him in with just his ragged under clothes.

Lifting up his shirt, he had a look at where Tyber had shot him. His chest was heavily bruised and he winced at the appearance of it. His implant which he was thankful they hadn't taken, told him that he didn't have any severe internal injuries, his armor taken the brunt of the blast, but he doubted it would be in any condition to be used after this, given how badly he'd still be hit.

Pushing himself more upright, he grunted in pain clenching his chest.

"I'm gonna die here, In an imperial cell." he snorted to himself "What do ya' know, mom was right."

Prior to this he had avoid Imperial prisons, mostly by being one of many bounty hunters how made a living on Imperial Contracts, but now he was a known associate of a Rebel cell, if he wasn't executed out right for being a traitor or imprisoned for the rest of his life, he'd be black listed for the rest of his life.

Putting his palms on his eye he let out a shout of frustration "I'm so screwed!" he shouted as he punched the wall, hard enough for it a ring like a gong.

Then he heard a voice "Shut up! We're all in the same boat if you didn't notice." It was Ezra's voice, he was fairly certain of it. It was coming from the cell next to his.

"You can hear me?" He said in a raised voice, not quite yelling, but keeping his volume up.

"Yeah, I guess the Empire skimped on the walls of these cells, their pretty thin." Ezra called back in a half yell.

"Yeah I can hear you to." Another voice called from the other wall. That one he was sure was Sabine.

Dral walked over to it and called "Sabine that you?"

"No, it's Ezra, I don't sound anything like Sabine!" Ezra's voice called back from the other wall.

"No, not you, I think Sabine is in the other cell." Dral called back.

"No, I'm Sabine, I don't know who is in the other cell, I can't really hear them."

Dral started grinding his teeth, and started banging on the wall. "Sabine! Ezra is in the other cell next to mine." Walking over to the other wall, he hammered on it "Ezra, Sabine is in the other cell."

"Dral, did you say Ezra is in the other cell?" Sabine called back to him.

Ruffling his hair in frustration, Dral was getting irritated at the confusion. "Alright this isn't working we need some kind of system here." Dral said to himself.

Leaning against the wall the bordered Ezra's cell "Ezra, when I'm speaking to you, I'm gonna bang on the wall like this." he hit the wall three times.

"Alright, can you tell Sabine something to Sabine for me."

Growling he said "Sure."

"Alright, tell her...you know what forget it."

Growling he went to Sabine wall's he repeated the same message.

"Alright, hey Dral can you ask Ezra something for me."

Muttering to himself he responded with "Sure."

"Great, ask him what really happened on Kamino, with Tyber and JV-FR13."

Rubbing his forehead Dral responded with "Sabine, I feel like I might be missing some context here."

"Dral just ask him the damn question!" she said in tone to reveled that something more was bothering her.

Dral started muttering to himself "Whatever, I'll play messenger boy."

* * *

"I'm starting to think, these three aren't going to give me any useful information." Tyber muttered to himself as he listened to the audio feed from the three cells.

He'd hoped that the thought of being able to commutate with each other when they had originally thought themselves isolated would make something slip. But as of right now they were just shouting over each other, trying to be heard.

He had figured of the six of them, these three, as the youngest would be the most likely to let something to slip. Kanan, Hera and Zeb were truly isolated, waiting to be questioned. Their droid was currently being hacked by the techs and the their ship was being worked over by a crew of mechanics, not that he needed to. He had secretly been picking up all activity on the ship ever sense the entire incident with the holocron, which he was currently tracking down. He thought he might of located it, and currently having a team search the area.

The door to his office opened with a telltale hiss. Turning he saw Agent Kallus standing in the door frame.

"Come in agent."

He came in walking in the incredibly stiff manner he came to expect from Imperials. He got the distinct impression the Agent didn't like him. He wouldn't either, he'd been on the planet for a fraction of them time he had, and not only had he managed to capture the Rebels and stop the "Shape" in less than a week. Granted in both situation he had an unfair advantage, JV-FR13 was under his control and he'd had the Ghost tapped for some time. But he didn't need to know that, this would look good for him.

He only had the Troopers he had drugged involved in the damn thing handling, but right now it was sitting in cell to keep up appearances with the Agent around.

"Sir, I'd like to be the one to interrogate the Rebels, I have the history with them, I feel..." Kallus started but stopped when Tyber raised his hands for silence.

"Alright, you can interrogate..." Tyber said as he scrolled through his data pad "this man." he flipped the pad around to show him a picture of Dral.

Kallus scowled at this. "The Bounty Hunter? He's not a part of the cell, I don't even know who he is."

"Name, Dral Rahm, a bounty hunter of moderate repute. Not much of a history on him, has spent most of his career flying under the radar. But maybe he's something more to the Rebels, take a crack at him agent."

Kallus clearly felt he was being given a fools errand. And he was right of course, but he wasn't going to let him near the rebels. "Sir, I really think."

"That is all agent." Tyber said turning around in his chair.

With that Kallus stomped out of the room.

* * *

"Does that thing even eat." one of the troopers outside the cell holding JV-FR13. Unlike Ezra's cell, this one had a window, and two troopers outside it looking in, one holding a food tray. JV-FR13 just stared through the window.

"Whatever man, just slide the food." the other said as he hit the switch opening a small opening, and he slide the food tray in.

JV-FR13 just stared at the tray. "He's not doing anything." the first trooper said.

"Well let's hope it stays that way, that guy has killed tons of a people, frankly I'm glad he's not doing anything."

Both troopers turned away from the window. In the cell, JV-FR13 continued to look at the food tray. Reaching his hand out, the piece of bread flew off the tray and into his hand. Holding it up to examine it, he tilted his head in curiosity, wondering how it had managed to pull it to him.

* * *

Dral lay with his back against the wall of his cell, mentally worn out with the back and forth. Sabine was mad at Ezra for telling them he had seen Zann being killed, when he had by his own admission only said he saw it attack him, Ezra constantly defending his choice, saying he only relayed what he believed too of happened and had no way of knowing what had happened. Dral got the feeling Ezra wasn't telling the whole truth, but was too tired to care.

"Dral tell Ezra, that he should of told us how it really happened, then we might not be in this mess!"

Sighing, Dral banged three times of the opposite wall "Ezra, Sabine say's that you should of been honest from the beginning, then we might not be in this mess."

"Dral, tell Sabine that I thought that thing had killed him, I told them what I thought was true."

Turing to his left, Dral banged on other wall "Sabine, Ezra say's that told you what he thought was true."

"Dral, tell Ezra that he shouldn't of started talking about thing's he wasn't sure about, that if he told the truth we might of been able to see this coming."

Sighing Dral reached over to his right, ready to bang on the wall but stopped before he hit it. He hand was shaking again. Grabbing his wrist, he pulled it in close to his chest.

"Dral, I'm not hearing any banging, did you tell Ezra what I said?" Sabine called through the wall.

"Sabine, how long have we been here?" Dral called through the wall.

* * *

Sabine heard Dral's voice, shaking a little "Sabine, how long have we been here?"

"Dral you okay?" her voice coming down from the arguing tone to a much gentler one.

"Sabine, just tell me!" his voice was much harsher.

"I'm not sure, I haven't seen the sky since we got, a day, maybe more. Hold on." she sat down and started thinking, the trooper's had brought them food twice, so it was probably close to a day. "Yeah about a day, why?"

The mental of the wall was fairly thin, but in order to hear each other they still need to speak up in order to hear each other.

"Dral, are you okay?"

* * *

Ezra was sitting in his cell, waiting for Dral to tell him what Sabine had to say. He hadn't told either of them what had really happened on Kamino, and if he had to tell Sabine, he didn't want it to be via Dral.

In their conversations he had learned that they weren't cell's like his. They had proper beds instead of metal benches, fully functional lights and windows that let them look into the hall. He was certain his specific accommodations were specifically from Zann, a mild form of payback on his part.

Banging on the wall, trying to get the conversation going to distract himself from the cell.

"Dral! What's going on in there? Did Sabine say anything?"

Pressing his ear again the mental and listening carefully, he though he heard a whimper.

* * *

Hera sat at the table, the only light directly over her, making it impossible for her to see beyond the light.

"So, Hera, I'm betting you never planned to see me again." Tyber's cool collective voice came from the shadows, sending chill's down her spine. She couldn't help but feel a faint feeling of shame at ever falling for his act, and now here he was working for the one enemy they had once shared.

"Tyber, I see you've turned lap dog for the Empire." he said, trying to convey a level of confidence she didn't truly feel.

"Well, I have you to thank for that." He said taking a seat across from her. "You left me there to die, leaving me at their mercy."

"Oh please, just because Ezra couldn't stop that thing doesn't mean we left you."

The look on Tyber's face didn't seem quite right, he looked genuinely confused. "What do you think happened in that lab?"

Now it was Hera's turn to look confused "What else could of happened? You got cornered by that thing and he bugged out, Zann even hared soldier's can desert under fire."

Then he smiled "You, my lovely friend have been mislead. That is not what happened, and I'm afraid that little Jedi friend of yours in hiding something from all of you."

"What do you mean?"

"Ezra and I were escaping, then we got caught in an explosion. He was fine but I was caught under some debris. I asked the boy for help, while that thing was banging down the door. He walked right up to me, looked me in the eye and told me he was going to leave me to that thing, that if I was dead then Sabine would be free from my control. Then he let that thing come to me, which I suppose in a way I should thank him for, now I have an indestructible enforcer."

Hera looked at him, with a scowl. "You're lying, Ezra isn't that cold blooded, he'd never."

"He did, and the first thing I had that thing do was try and return the favor, but it seems he just hitched a ride to Lothol."

"So you're the reason that thing has been killing people, we thought it was out fault."

Tyber shrugged his shoulders "In a way it is, if Ezra had just helped me then and there, that thing would of sunk into the ocean with everything else."

Shaking her head Hera continued "So why did you have it start killing random people?"

"I didn't, I only wanted it to kill Ezra for what he did, but it seems when he wasn't around he went to his default mood, which is murder, so yeah ,my mistake on that." he said as if it were something as simple as making a wrong turn on a trip.

"But why work for the Empire? You were free, why go to the Empire?"

"Oh, I wasn't free, I was still hurt pretty badly and what remained of the security force caught me, I wasn't in any condition to escape, then well." He pulled a vile of a eerily familiar substance.

"Is that?" she began.

"Indeed, the 'wonder drug', they had an entire shipment on the ship they pulled me on, and they shot me up, I'm afraid I'm hooked. If I don't get a shot every week, I'll have complete immune system failure."

For everything he had done, Hera felt a twinge of sympathy for Tyber, but quickly squashed it.

"Well you're a smart man, I'm sure you'll find a cure." he hissed out.

"Maybe, but our little stunt wiped out all the research on it, as well as a large portion of the stock and the ability to produce it. So I'm on a time clock here, right now I need all the research I managed to steal, and it's on your ship, I need to codes to get into the data banks."

"Ahh, so there it is, I was wondering when we'd get to what you wanted."

"My technicians can break the codes, but I'd rather it be done much quicker."

"Well forget it, I'm not going to make any of this easier for you. You hated the Empire as much as anyone, now here you are doing their dirty work." she said with a sneer.

"Fine, if you won't give me that, tell me where the holocron is, I have teams search for it, but I'd hate for them to hurt some innocent civilians in the search."

That caught her attention "I don't know where it is." she said truthfully enough, she'd left that to Kanan, she let him handle all Jedi matters.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't would you, Kanan would be the one to ask." Standing up he said "Thank you for your time."

With that, two troopers she didn't even know where behind her grabbed her and lifted her up and carried her back off to her cell.

* * *

Tyber didn't learn anything useful in this round, but he hadn't really expected to. He was just testing the waters. He already had, and had so for a long time, possessed access to all the data that had been on the Ghost, having long since had access to the data with his virus on the ship, running undetected.

No, he had learned she wasn't ready to talk yet, he hadn't truly expected her to, but he now had a better idea of where he stood.

She had picked up on his search for a cure, of barring that a way to synthesize the drug so he didn't run out. Urai had been searching for a cure ever sense he been captured, or rather as soon as Tyber had contacted him. He only had one lead, but it wasn't worth chasing down yet, nothing was confirmed, but he was hopeful of a resolution soon. He's made use of his situation to the best of his ability, but he was hoping that sooner, rather than later he'd be able to start his war on the Empire again.

"Trooper, bring me the Jedi." He called to one of Storm Troopers.

* * *

"Dral! Answer me!" Sabine shouted through the wall. For the past hour he hadn't responded, and she could even hear Ezra trying to get a response out of him. Unlike Ezra however, she was certain she knew what was happening. Dral was having another episode, or a flashback or whatever his exact problem was.

Then she noticed shadows crossing her door. Walking to the window, she looked out and saw Agent Kallus and two Storm Troopers outside Dral's cell.

"Open it up." Kallus said, and the two troopers did so and went in to retrieve Dral. With a pang she realized that they were going to interrogate him. The issue was that Dral really wouldn't know anything, so it was not going to do the Empire any good, and Dral, in the throes of another one of his episodes, wasn't going to do well.

The next thing she heard was Dral screaming at the top of his voice as they dragged him out. Despite the large injury to his chest and his previous injury he received from the "Shape." he was putting up quite a fight.

"Hey Kallus!" she shouted "He doesn't know anything, he's just a hired gun."

Kallus looked at her "I know that, but he's the only one I'm cleared to interrogate." he said turning to follow the troopers dragging Dral down the hall.

* * *

He could hear the laughing, the deep inhuman laugh and he could swear he could see the large silted eyes.

He could of sworn he was a seven year old boy again as he felt the restraints being tightened. Then he felt the prick in his arm and suddenly reality came rushing back.

Taking a deep breath he look around and found himself in a dark room, tied to a rack, facing a man he didn't know.

"Who are you?" he said in a voice trying to convey his normal mask of confidence.

"Agent Kallus, I'm going to interrogate you, and you will tell me everything you know about the Rebels. "

Dral attempted his usual mocking laugh, much not managing to quite pull it off. "Sorry buddy, but I was just hired for a job, I don't know anything, so you can either bring me back to my cell or kill me now."

"Oh, I know you don't know anything, but letting the other's see what I do to you, might just loosen their lips." pulling a table of tools over he picked a nasty looking tool that looked like a melon baller with jagged blades around the edge. "First, our scans indicate you have an implant in you right eye that we missed when he put you in. We can't have that can we."

The rack leaned toward Kallus as he raised the tool to Dral's eye.

Dral clenched his jaw right, determined to give him the satisfaction of hearing him scream.

* * *

AN: Okay please leave a review and tell me what you think. Also make sure to tell me which of my other stories you'd rather see first.


	10. Chapter 9

A/N: Okay, sorry for the long wait, I've just been busy with work and school lately and this just had to take a back seat.

However, I think that this update came just in time or Halloween so I think it works out in that regard.

Well I've kept you waiting long enough, onto the story

Disclaimer: Star War is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 9

* * *

"That thing just creeps me out, it just stares at us all day with dead eyes." The Trooper said to his partner as he approached the door to the cell. "I really don't want have to move him." he said with his hand hovering over the control panel.

"Just open the door, I've got you covered. Put the cuffs on him and let's get this over with." the other trooper said raising his rifle.

"Alright, alright." the first trooper said opening the door with the control panel. Walking in with the cuffs held up in front of him. "Alright big guy, we're gonna move you to another cell, Captain's order. I'm going to put these cuffs on you, and you aren't gonna do anything we're going to regret right?" he said masking the fear in his voice reasonably well.

JV-FR13 just look at him, not moving. For a second the trooper planned on bolting back to the door. Then it raised its arms level with the troopers cuffs, holding them out for the trooper to put them on.

Letting out a sign of relief, the trooper put the cuffs on. "You know for one of the most prolific killers in Imperial history, you are an extremely compliant prisoner. " and with that he started leading JV-FR13 out of his cell.

* * *

He wanted to reach out and kill the men before him. They watched him in this cage, directed his movements. But he was still restrained, the man still held him in place, but his voice was weakening, soon he's be free. He was growing stronger, much stronger, soon they would pay, they would all pay.

* * *

Kallus watch as the dragged the limp body of the bounty hunter out of the interrogation room and back to his cell. They hadn't gotten any information out of the man, but Kallus had never actually expected them to. Zann had only given him leave interrogate the bounty hunter, and Kallus had been certain Zann knew he was not a regular part of the Rebel group. But hopefully the results of the interrogation on him would loosen the lips of the Rebels. He had used much more primitive methods than the empire normally would have for the simple reason they left much more visible marks.

Zann was up to something, he was sure of it, the man was a career criminal, and his refusal allow anyone other than himself to talk to the Rebels made him suspicious. The problem was most , if not all, of the crew seem unusually loyal to Zann. This was beyond odd, for one Zann was a known detester of the Empire, the fact he could inspire any sense of loyalty in imperial troops seemed like a long shot. Then there was the fact Zann only had his commission for under a year.

If Kallus didn't know better, he's say that the troops under Zann's command were just his old thugs in imperial armor, but a quick background check on any of the enlisted men dismissed this theory.

He investigated what he could, but Zann wasn't a typical captain. His past a crime lord made him paranoid and took great measures to keep his information hidden from people he didn't want to see it.

But he'd find out soon enough, he was sure of it.

* * *

Kanan looked stone faced at Zann from across the table, blinking far less than he normally did. Tyber looked back at him, trying to gleam any sort of emotion in Jedi, to see any sign of weakness. He had heard Tyber's story of the events at the station and hadn't even blinked.

Tyber suspected that if Kanan didn't know exactly what had happened on that station, he at least had a vague idea.

"Why are you telling me this Zann?" Kanan finally said, keeping his voice even. "Are you trying to get sympathy from me? I don't approve of what Ezra did, but I don't fully fault him either."

Tyber smirked "No, I don't want your sympathy, but you help would be greatly appreciated in remedying the matter."

For the first time sense the start of the interrogation Kanan showed some form of emotion, it was just a simple eyebrow raise, but Tyber picked up on it none the less.

"I'm hooked Kanan, and frankly, on borrowed time, I have a six month supply of this drug, and with your little stunt destroying the only known means of production, well you see my dilemma, even the best estimates for rebuilding the facility put it at just over a year, I'll be long dead at that time."

"Well that's very sad, but how can we help, what's more why would we want to?"

Tyber started to grind his teeth "I can give you your freedom, in exchange for you hunting down a lead for me. I can't do it myself, with Admiral Thrawn watching my ship movements so closely. You go free, and you I get a potential cure for this condition, win-win I'd say."

Kanan couldn't help but think this was a trap, but it was looking like the best option at this point. Tyber had done an excellent job of isolating him from the rest of his crew, making communication and coordination impossible.

The fact the Kanan knew at least parts of what Tyber was saying were true was also helping him lean towards this plan. He's seen the research on this drug and it did a complete override the user's natural immune system, and Kanan had personally seen to the production facilities destruction.

"Say we did this, what would we be looking for, hypothetically speaking."

Tyber smirked "Well, Hypothetically speaking, there is a plant that grows on the planet Dathomir that some of my informants have heard from some of the locals that can cure immune system failure, a rare plant that only grows in a forest region in the planets southern hemisphere."

"Okay, say your informants are right, why don't they just get this plant for you so you can study it yourself? Why do you need us?"

"Well, my informants has unfortunately been stranded on world, his ship was destroyed in, unspecific circumstances, I no longer have my private fleet to go retrieve him, I can't try to contact any passengers service to retrieve him, with Thrawn monitoring all out gong communication and I most certainly can't sent an official Imperial force. Now if you managed to somehow escape, why I could stop you from say, running and hiding on the planet, and I may say, investigate their at a later point."

"Okay, I get it, you want us to do it under the radar for you." Kanan said cutting Tyber off.

Kanan was seriously considering taking the offer, at least to them off the ship, but something was bothering him with Tyber's plan. How could he even expect them to follow through with this if he let them go, he'd have no way to actually enforce this.

As Kanan was thinking this however, Tyber slide a case towards him, smirking. Kanan eye the small case suspiciously before Tyber spoke.

"Go on open it up, it's a little gift to you."

Opening it Kanan say a dozen viles of a familiar looking substance. "IS this?"

"Indeed, that is the very drug I am currently dependent on."

"Why are you giving me this? It's not going to do us any good?"

"Oh isn't it? I'd say the three younger member of your crew would greatly appreciate it. Also you might want to tell them, in future not to blindingly accept food offered by a known enemy, you, Hera and Zeb were much aware in that regard."

Kana went wide eyed "You drugged Ezra and Sabine!"

"And the bounty hunter for good mesure, not sure where he came from, but his smart mouth didn't do him any favors in this regard."

"You sick..."

"Yes, I'm a monster, but know I'd say you don't have much of a choice to comply. I'll set up for you to escape from your cells in one hour, then...

Tyber stopped talking as the lights went out. A moment later backup lights came on and an automated announcement range over the P.A system. "Partial power failure, backup generator online."

"Alright, that wasn't planned , but let's go with it." Tyber said tossing Kanan his lightsaber and blaster "Go get your friends, get to your ship and find me that planet, my informant will contact you on Dathomir. Now if you don't mind, I've got go act like this is a disaster."

And without further ado Tyber left Kanan, temporarily stunned at how confident he was they would do what he wanted. But Kanan knew he was partially right, they would have find a cure or Ezra and Sabine would die.

* * *

Sabine's Cell 20 minutes earlier

Sabine had been drifting off to sleep when the door hissed open and the guard threw something onto the floor with them call out something about "giving her an idea of what was waiting for her."

It took her a moment to realize it was Dral and he looked horrible. He was covered in blood and cuts.

He was muttering "they took it."

Sabine rushing forward helped him sit up right, wondering what "they" had taken. It only took her a moment to realize what he was talking about, they had taken his ocular implant, and with it the rest of his eye.

"Oh my...Dral, what did they do to you."

Dral spat out a gob of blood and looked at her with his one remaining eye. "Tried to make me talk, I told them nothing."

Sabine felt a sudden surge of gratitude for Dral, but was count off mid thought "Not much of an accomplishment, I don't know anything about your Rebel cell anyway."

"Dral, why..." she began "these methods, they aren't imperial standard, it looks like they used knives and hot irons, this is primitive, why..." This brutality was disturbing, she had expected torture but not such primitive methods.

"Well, if I had to guess." Dral gasped out "For the reason I'm seeing right now, it's freakin' you out isn't it? I'm bettin' that was the reason for it all, I'm certain they knew I didn't know crap, they were just makin' an example out of me."

That made sense to Sabine but it didn't do anything to ease her nerves, if anything it drove them higher.

"I'm not gonna make it out of here." Dral said after a few minutes silence.

"Don't talk like that, we'll all get out, you'll get paid and you can finally do...whatever it is you always wanted to do." she finished lamely.

This statement caused another few minutes of silence. "So, what are you going to do after we get out?" Sabine asked in an awkward attempt to keep the silence at bay.

Dral glanced sideways at her, then looked dead ahead at the wall."Retire, I can't keep doing this anymore, I'm not good enough at it for one and I can't keep having these episodes. No if I make it out, I'm gonna find some place quiet to settle down, maybe get some help for my...condition." he trailed off.

"Dral...what exactly...what...can I ask what is wrong with you exactly?" Sabine tried to word the question as gently as possible, but this was a question she had been thinking on for a while now.

"You already know, so why ask."

"Well, I'm pretty certain you have some sort of PTSD, but what happened? Was it a battle or..."

"No, it was when I was a kid, and I don't want to talk about it, it's not something I want to think about, so either pick a different subject or stay quiet.

Before she could respond the light went out, then turned over to emergency lights, followed by an announcement of the backup generators turning on.

"See, here's out chance." she said running to the door. As she suspected the cell's lock had come undone when the power had gone off. With a great heave she tried to pry it open. It barely budged, even with the power off the door's were still heavy. Looking at Dral, she wanted to tell him to help, but soon remembered his condition. Even if he was fit he'd have a chore getting this thing open, but she wasn't about to give up, this was probably going to be their only chance to get out of the cell.

Pushing and shoving the door was barely moving, but she didn't stop.

Suddenly the door started to slid open with greater ease.

Jumping pack her first thought was of guards coming in to secure them, but then she heard Ezra's voice call into her.

"Sabine! Why did you stop pushing?! We've got to hurry up."

"Ezra?How are you moving that thing? It's so heavy..."

"Jedi remember?"

m\Mentally smacking herself for forgetting Ezra's force abilities, she started prying the door to the point where they could pull Dral through.

"We need to help Dral Ezra, he's not going to be able to walk on his own." She said she helped him through the partially open door.

Ezra flinched slightly at seeing Dral's condition, but got under one of his arms none the less. "We need to head to the armory first and get out equipment before anything else, I'm betting that's where the other's will go, we can try and meet them there."

"What if they're not their Ezra, then what?" Sabine said as they carried Dral down the hall.

"Then the Ghost is the next place we'd meet, if nothing else I can find Kanan with the force." he said, his breathing becoming labored "But let's start with the armory first."

Ezra had thought this through much more than she had expected him to, and frankly she was pretty impressed with his quick thinking.

Putting these thoughts out of mind for the moment however, Sabine started to notice something very off about their escape, they hadn't encountered a single guard.

* * *

Power Core

"Stop, please, I !" The trooper was cut off with a sickening crunch as a heavy first collided with the side of his helmet with enough force to shatter it.

"The Shape." was making its way through the now partially functioning room, having smashed several panels to disrupt the power of the ship.

"I thought that thing was locked up in its cell, how did it get out?!" another trooper shouted to his two remaining comrades as he opened fire with his blaster rifle, the bolts impacting on its body to no affect as he advanced on them.

"Stop!" a voice range out from behind the shape, and it surprising did so, and slowly turned around, to face the new voice.

"Captain Zann!" the troopers called out, with a level of relief for the reprieve.

"Put the machete down and go back to your cell, this is your one and final warning." Tyber said leveling his blaster at JV-FR13, and behind him came no less than fifteen heavily armed troopers carrying heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, and all of them leveled them at the shape.

In Tyber's mind this was all for show, this thing was completely under his control, as far as he knew.

That idea however quickly left his mind as the "Shape" whipped the blade at him, sending flying end over at right at Zann's head. Tyber ducked and barely avoid being hit by it, the trooper behind him was not as lucky however as the machete planted itself firmly between his eyes.

Wide eyed at the attempt on his life, Tyber rallied himself "Drop him!" he shouted as he and the remaining troopers let lose a torrent of blaster fire and rockets.

* * *

"Okay, the armory." Ezra said panting slightly as he opened the door, to be greeted with a blaster rifle leveled at his head.

Jumping back, letting go of Dral and nearly forcing Sabine to drop him.

"Wow you're jumpy aren't ya?" Zeb's voice range from inside the armory.

It only took Ezra a moment to realize Kanan, Hera and Zeb were already inside the armory retrieving their gear. Ezra couldn't help but notice Hera and Kanan giving him grave looks, but he was certain he'd find out the reason soon enough.

"We don't have long, whatever is going on isn't going to last long, and we better get going. Everyone grab you gear and move." Kanan said as he moved to the door to watch for guards.

* * *

Kanan didn't know if Zann was telling the truth about this "power problem" being his idea or not, but he didn't have much of a choice really if they wanted out, what's more, if Zann really had drugged Ezra, Sabine and Dral, he doubted Tyber would provided them with regular treatment

His train of thought was interrupted, by a voice ringing over the P.A, the unmistakable voice of Tyber Zann.

"All hands, this is your Captain, we have a prisoner out of containment, he is not to be approached under any circumstance. All hands initiate asset denial protocols and abandon ship."

"You don't think he means us do ya?" Zeb asked as he came up behind him.

"No." Kanan was sure of that, because he knew Zann wanted them to escape, but what was more, he wouldn't initiate asset denial procedures for them being on the ship, it would be a waste of resources. The only explanation would be if there was a prisoner he couldn't hope to contain or stop, and there was only one thing on the ship that fit the discription. "It's JV-FR13, Tyber's lost control of it, now it's running loose on the ship.

"But I thought Tyber had that thing under his control?" Ezra said as he turned his lightsaber on to make sure it still worked.

"Well apparently it didn't last, we need to move now."

They started to move out of the door while Ezra and Sabine helped Dral, who hadn't bothered to retrieve any of his equipment, it was all to damaged to be salvaged.

"Hold up." Zeb said walking over to them, taking Dral and throwing him over his shoulder "we'll move faster if I carry him."

and without another word they made their way to the hanger.

* * *

Scowling to himself in the escape pod, Tyber didn't understand how the damn thing had gotten out of control. The serum should of kept it in line. Perhaps it's mix-matched DNA had something to do with it, maybe it adapted to it and an became immune.

For whatever reason, it had at least given a much more credible reason for the Rebels escape. Soon it would be stuck on a hollow shell of ship with no power, it's own damage to the ships power grid had been greatly compounded by the fire fight in the power room.

It didn't matter how much damage that thing could take, the ship it was on was going to be a I giant floating metal shell soon once all protocols were followed.

Then it could just sit in a giant floating prisoner for however long it would live.

* * *

The Ghost was sitting in the hanger, and thanks to the evacuation order, not guarded what so over. They all ran up the loading ramp, and Hera went straight to the cockpit.

"Well, good news, they haven't done anything to the Ghost to keep it from flying."

"And the bad news?" Kanan asked.

"None really for a change, other than Chopper is in piece on the cargo room floor."

"Well, let's get flying then, get us clear of the planet I've got something important to tell everyone."

Hera didn't pry, she was eager to get going herself.

* * *

Sabine stood on the ramp, watching for any troopers who may find their way to the hanger.

"Sabine, close the ramp, we're taking off."

"Roger that." she said, as she turned to raise the ramp she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Turning to look, she saw "The Shape" standing at the opposite end of the hanger. Just standing there, staring at her, directly in the eye. He wasn't stalking or charging, he was just staring her down.

The look in his one good eye sent chills down her spine.

"Sabine raise the ramp, we have to go!" Kanan's voice rang over the intercom.

Snapping her out of her thoughts, she hit the switch to raise the ramp as the Ghost took off.

"Sabine, meet the rest of us in the sitting area, I have something important to tell you, Ezra and Dral.

This did nothing to put her at ease, and judging from the tone in his voice, it couldn't be anything good.

* * *

A/N: Okay, tell me what you think, please leave a review.


	11. Chapter 10

A/N: Okay here is the next Chapter. I'm almost done with school for the semester so I hope to be able to update more frequently soon, so there is that.

I would also like to thank everyone who takes the time to review, it means a great deal to me. I don't get many and the one's I do get mean a great deal to me.

Also, as some of the reader may know, I love sliding references into my stories and their are few in this chapter as well, I'm wondering if anyone can pick them out.

Well enough of that, onto the chapter

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and Lucasfilm.

Chapter 10

* * *

She wasn't sure how to feel about the revaluation. On one hand, she was at last free of Zann's influence, and it was a relief to find she felt nothing but anger and disgust for the man, any feelings of fondness gone.

On the other hand, Sabine felt a deep hole of emptiness in her stomach at the thought that she along with Ezra and Dral were now working on a time clock in terms of life line. They were all hooked on the "miracle drug" and once their supply ran out, they were going to die a particularly painful death. She wondered if this was how a person who had been diagnosed with a terminal illness felt when they received the news.

Kanan had told all of them what Zann had done and the deal he had offered. Frankly it wasn't a deal or partnership at all, it was extortion plain and simple. He knew Kanan would never let either her or Ezra die in such a manner if he could help it. Dral being included seemed like a pointless cruel point, Tyber knew he wasn't involved in any larger sense with the crew. She in fact personally seriously doubted Tyber didn't have at least some level of knowledge of who Dral was, he was after all a bounty hunter and Tyber no doubt had an excellent knowledge of most of the galaxies bounty hunters.

To his credit Dral was taking it much better than she had expected. He had only started punching the durasteel door of sitting room, smashed a couple glasses and swore for about twenty minutes. She had expected him to try and take the Ghost back to try and kill Tyber.

Ezra was the opposite, he had dummied up and just looked at the floor. She also noticed he refused to look her in the eye. If she didn't know better, she would have thought he looked guilty.

Shaking the thought, she forced herself to think on what Kanan had told them. They had a chance to fix the situation, a rumor Tyber had heard of a planet or a medicine that might be able to reverse the effects of the drug.

To find they were heading to planet Sabine hoped to never visit, the planet Dathomir.

* * *

This was all his fault, and he knew it. What he had done at the facility that was the seed of the disaster. Now he, Sabine and Dral were more likely than not, going to die. He hadn't really cared for Dral, but he still couldn't help but feel guilty over it.

He had hidden it from everyone except Kanan, and now it seemed the ramifications of his actions were spreading wider and more horribly than he ever could of managed. He, Sabine and Dral were now all but dead persons walking, Tyber Zann was not only alive but running rough shot over Lothal with Imperial backing. His actions had not only hurt people close to him, but had caused two of the forces he hated most in the galaxy to merge into one force more terrible than before.

If he was going to make this right he had a lot of work to do. He had to take down Tyber, of that he was certain, but he also needed to try and find this cure for him and Sabine, and Dral too he supposed.

But first, he would have to come clean to the rest of the crew. For his own sanity as well as setting things right, they needed to know what he had done.

This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

Imperial Fleet over Lothal

Tyber hated force users. Not as a general rule, but simple had yet to meet one that had ever made his life easier, or one that didn't have some sense of superiority to them, some arrogance.

This Inquisitor and his underlings were not exception. This Inquisitor had hunted him on Kamino, and had a nasty run in with JV-FR13, and Tyber suspected that it hurt his pride, being bested by little more than an animal. Apparently he had brought back up this time, one called "Fifth Brother" and the "Seventh Sister", pretentious naming as usual for these types.

"If you want to go onto that ship and tangle with that thing, I won't stop you, but it's a waste of time, he's stuck over there." Tyber said not trying terribly hard to stop them, he thought he could make a betting pool on the odds of the Inquisitors ability to take "The Shape."

The Fifth Brother, larger than the other two, and walking like he thought he was unstoppable, and Tyber believed he truly thought so, glared at him but didn't speak.

"I assure you Captain, this creature is nothing compared to the power of the force." The Seventh Sister said with cool and somewhat sultry voice.

Tyber smirked at her, either she didn't know about her superiors run in with "The Shape" or had a gross misunderstanding of it, Tyber had seen the Inquisitor after words and he was clearly the worst for wear.

"If you insist on taking that thing on, I'll provided a shuttle, but my pilot won't be hanging around to watch, once you are on that dead ship, you will be on your own until you either kill that thing, subdue it or die."

The head inquisitor spoke up this time "We shall…..manage." and with that he turned to leave with his subordinates.

Smirking to himself, Tyber knew this fight was going end badly for the inquisitor. He and his companions were without a doubt highly skilled warriors, he knew that he himself would not hold up well against any of them in a fair fight, but "The Shape" was not a creature that skill or tactics could beat, he just kept coming and didn't go down. It would simply outlast them, they may hold the advantage for hours on end, but it wouldn't matter long term.

You couldn't beat it, you could only survive it.

* * *

"Why are we here again?" The Seventh Sister asked in a bored voice. She clearly did not think this creature warranted three inquisitors' to handle, her comment to Zann had shown that.

"Do not under estimate this creature, he sorely tested my abilities, I don't believe it can be killed. We however are not here to kill him, we are to capture him, he is a valuable specimen."

The Sister didn't responded but sate quietly while the shuttle approached the now crippled ship "Shadow of Intent".

The ships life support was still functioning to some degree, but all three inquisitors still had to wear breather masks. Disembarking from the shuttle, the trio simple stood in the dark hanger, sensing for the thing they had come to hunt.

They couldn't quite pin point its location, the echoes in the force from the carnage it had wrought on the ship clouded the senses but they could still tell it was close.

"We should split up, hunt it down and….." The Fifth Brother began before the High Inquisitor cut him off.

"No, we take it as a team, no need to risk anything in a one on one fight, it will come to us, make no mistake."

As if on cue, they all felt the telltale prickle at the back of their skulls, and turned to see "The Shape" standing in a door way, staring at the new comers, it's head tilted slightly to the right.

"Time to die!" The Brother shouted igniting his lightsaber, chagrining forward.

"No." The High Inquisitor shouted as the brother charger and drove his blade deep in JV-FR13's chest.

The Brother smirked as his attack landed, but the smirk faded as his target didn't even flinch or seem to react, it only looked down at the glowing read blade in its chest with what appeared to be mild curiosity, then looked up and right in the Fifth Brother's eyes.

* * *

The Ghost

Sabine had requested to be left alone for a while, and the rest of the crew had so far kept to her wishes. She found herself reading the data Tyber had stolen from the station, for two reasons. The first was to take her mind off he own situation, which wasn't really working given the drug had come from the facility, but she couldn't bring herself to do anything in the way of her art with her mood so foul.

The second, more solid reason she was interested about JV-FR13, the way it looked at her. It had intent in its eye, but she couldn't figure out what.

The files in it were organized with the most recent first, it like traveling back in time for the like story of the experiment.

This poor thing, she found herself thinking it was odd to think of it as such given what a brutal killer it was but it was, had been subject to what Dr. Cooper had called "Stress and Strain" tests, like it was simple piece of metal. What was more it did, according to the Doctor, feel pain as much as any human did, but had been so desensitized to it, it no longer reacted.

What was scaring her more and more however, as she read, the wording made it seem like this creature had not been grown like the clones in the Clone Wars. It was starting to sound like it was a more than likely not so willing volunteer. It wasn't really clear as of right now, but she didn't doubt as she read on it would become clear.

As she did, the nature of the experiments done to it were continually growing more and more grotesque. Gene splicing to giving it attribute of several different species, attempts to re wire its brains by cutting out certain parts, which failed to work as all pieces grew back. Injecting it with every variety of venom known in the galaxy to make it immune to them as well as several toxic substances not found in nature.

The removal of whole organs to test the levels of regeneration, the application huge levels of electrical current, exposure to lethal levels of radiation. Freezing it in temperatures cold enough to cause severe frost bite and even solidly freeze it. Submerging it in water for hours at a time to see if it could survive under water.

For a couple hours Sabine read about the experiments done to JV-FR13, and found herself disgusted with the Empire in a way she had never experienced. This was beyond cruel and disgusting. What was more, as she got closer and closer to the beginning of the experiments, it was clear this thing was once human, even if it wasn't know. Soon, she would be reading the "Subject volunteer" file, and find out it's real name, who he had been before the empire had destroyed his mind.

* * *

Shadow of Intent

"Why won't he die!?" The Fifth Brother had shouted as he jumped back for the thing. It had nearly taken his head off when he had attacked it.

"It's an experiment gone wrong yo fool!" The Sister shouted running next to him, a gash on her cheek. "If you had paid attention during the briefing you would know it won't die so easily!"

The High Inquisitor landed behind them after leaping away from the thing. "It's different than before, something has changed it, it has some force power now, it's only acting on instinct, but it's somehow developed force abilities!"

The Brother and Sister go wide eyed at this news, as far as anyone knew, it wasn't possible to gain force powers through scientific means, not that a number of people hadn't tried, but this thing was supposed not of shown any of these traits during the last encounter the Inquisitor had with it.

All three looked at it, and it just stared right back, walking slowly towards it them, like it didn't have a care in the world.

As it did an unnatural fog started to form in the hanger, starting to obscure there vision.

* * *

Tyber listen to the transmission from the ship, the shuttle Captain had dropped on when he had dropped off the Inquisitors and now it made sense in a way. It had developed some level of force abilities, and force sensitive individual weren't affected by the control serum. It had somehow developed force abilities after he had subdued it, it couldn't have been force sensitive when he had done it, otherwise it would have just gone unconscious.

How that had happened he couldn't even guess, but that thing was getting more and more dangerous, and frankly he would be content to let it sit on the ship for the rest of eternity, but had had a feeling that wouldn't be the case.

* * *

The Seventh Sister was on the back heel as "The Shape" slashed wildly at her with its simple blade. It had no form or finesse, but it was much stronger and faster than it looked, and it looked extremely strong to begin with. Added to the fact that none of her attacks seem to slow t it down and it didn't get tired, there was only one eventual outcome, it would kill them all. The ballistic mask it wore showed no emotion and it was extremely eerie.

The mist it had apparently summoned was growing thicker and thicker. This force ability was largely ignored by inquisitors and the Sith order in general, it lacked any form of offensive power, she had read of a few Jedi who used it, Master Plo Koon being the most notable, but they only used it ot disrupt and hide.

Now she was starting to see the use of it, the psychological affect was great, not being able to see her opponent was unnerving and it caused her to confuse simple objects as her target. The Force was too clouded her for her to properly sense out her opponent and she was starting to lose her nerve. She could sense him in general, but not pick up his exact location.

Then he vanished, both as the shadow she was fighting and in the force.

With it the mist started to dissipate, and when it did, she saw the Fifth Brother and High Inquisitor, injured but alive making their way towards her.

"It's gone." The Fifth Brother said, clutching his side, which was bleeding profusely. "How."

The High Inquisitor looked highly disturbed "That thing, should have that power." He said vaugly, not really to the Sister or the Brother.

"How can he just disappear like that? That should be possible."

The High Inquisiter scowled, this sounded like reports he read about from the Clone Wars, not exactly the same, but vauge similarities. He knew where they would have to go from here.

Tapping his comm the High Inquisiter call Tyber "Captain Zann, we are ready for pick up, and prepair our ship, we need to depart as soon as possible."

"Where are we going? We don't have clue where that thing went." The fifth Brother snarled.

"To Dathomir, that creature is showing force powers long thought lost to the Galaxy, powers only Dathomri Witch's possess."

* * *

Sabine felt mentally exhausted from the reports on what had been done to the JV-FR13, but she whas nearing the end of the files on it, and she just felt compelled to finish, to find out who the man behind the mask was, why he was chosen and what, if anything, he had done to warrant this fate, which Sabine was having a hard time trying to think of anything that might warrant the living hell he had gone through.

Finally she came to it, the first report it read.

 ** _Dr. Alexander Cooper's Log, Experiment JV-FR13_**

 ** _The test subject has finally been provided for in my latest experiment. Attempts to trying and grow a completely new species from birth have resulted in nothing but failure. The child was provided for us…_**

Sabine stopped reading there, her stomach churning like it was full of hot sour milk. Did she read that right? She went back to re-read it, two more times to make sure. Child, the CHILD, JV-FR13 was a child? It shook her to her core, and made her nearly sick, all the experiments she had read that were performed on it, this was all done a on a child. She wanted to stop, but now her desire to know who this person was, not this man, but this child, who they had been.

 ** _The child was provided for us by one of our security officers. Apparently an illegitimate child he didn't even know he had and never really wanted, he was happy to be rid of him. The boy's mother apparently had been raising him for a number of years and for reasons that alluded me and his father, sent him here to live with his father. The father doubted the validity of this claim initially but a DNA test soon provided the proof that this child is indeed his don. The father was paid handsomely and as I understand it plans to retire now. Documentation below gives the child name and little else, we have nr records of his place of birth or his exact age, although I may estimate approximately between six and nine standard years of age. Documentation is as follows_**

 ** _Subjects name: Jaden Toraness_**

Sabine stopped here for a moment, her breathing heavy at this point. Jaden, his name was Jaden. The boy's father had sold him to the empire, to a doctor to be an experiment. To have his body mutilated and twisted into something to kill and destroy, with nothing in his heart but rage and destruction.

She didn't want to keep reading, feeling she had all she needed, but continued on, something compeling her to do so.

 ** _Date of Birth: Unknown_**

 ** _Planet of Birth: Unknown_**

 ** _Mother: Unknown_**

Sabine felt her heart drop into her stomach as she read the final line, chill run down here spine, her head spin and her stomach churn. The final line read

 ** _Father: Atin Wren_**

* * *

A/N: Okay please leave a review if you liked it, hated it, or felt completely indifferent to it.


	12. Chapter 11

A/N: Okay, I would like to say I sorry for the delay. I lost everything on my computer again and had to re-write this chapter. I also had surgery and couldn't use my left arm for a while, but that all still doesn't account for the huge lapse in time, I just felt defeated in terms of writing, and couldn't get the fire going, but now it's burning again so I hope you enjoy!

WARNING: This Chapter takes a darker turn near the end, and while there is nothing graphic, it could be upsetting to some readers. I won't give details, but it is a more mature in terms of content, It's not M, but it is a hard T in my opinion.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

Chapter 11

* * *

Grunting as he fastened the two piece of metal together, Dral gave the new "tool" a tap on the floor of the cargo hold. He'd never been great shakes at making improvised tools or weapons, but knew Dathomir was rugged terrain and you needed or at the very least would prefer some sort of knife or machete in wild country like that, which he never really ever bother to acquire.

What he had here was a mongrel pieces of scrap metal he had found and bolted and welded together, it looked more like a meat clever than a proper tool. Cursing silently to himself, he started to dismantle it, ready for another attempt.

If he was honest with himself he didn't even want the damn thing, he was trying to keep his mind focused, because if he thought too much about what Zann did to him, what the Imperial Agent did to him, his current situation, he was bound to snap and start having various fits of rage. Last time he did that on this ship, Zeb had put him down pretty quickly.

It was more a matter of personal pride that he wanted to avoid another fight than anything. He'd been beaten down far too many times in the past few days for his liking, and in fact could only count one of his fights as an actual win.

Absentmindedly he reached up to the bandaged over where his right eye used to be. It had actually healed up, thanks to the drug that up jumped crime lord had given him. That meant that if he got a prosthetic the surgeon would have to reopen the wound.

Dral started grinding his teeth. He had never really controlled his temper all that well, but everything kept piling up on him, and he never got any help for it, and he didn't want it. As much as he hated everything that had happened to him, the idea of people seeing him as a victim, that was worse. The idea of pity and the shame that came with it, no he'd rather fight "The Shape" with a toothbrush than have that.

Looking back down at his lost cause of a tool, he decided to give it up for the day.

Leaning against the wall, he slumped to the ground and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes, or he supposed eye now. His life had taken a turn for the worst ever sense he started to associate with these rebels. When he meet them he had his own ship, a piece of junk for sure but it was his, a small arsenal of weapons and tools and his right eye. All gone now, and even if they paid him what they promised, he might break even, but it still wouldn't undo the trauma and the pain.

Slamming his fist into the floor with a loud "THUNG" from the impact. If it were up to him he'd of bugged out by now, but he was tied to the fate of this Rebel cell, or at least to Ezra and Sabine's. But if this turned out to be a dead end, if there wasn't a cure at the end of trip or at least something to alleviate it, well he might just do all of them a favor and put them out of their misery. He'd seen people with defective immune system's, usually from something they picked up from some questionable activities, and the fact was if you didn't have the money to pay for extremely expensive medication that could keep you going, you would…well you wouldn't go out in a pretty way. Any minor infection or dieses would take you out.

He wasn't going to waste away like that if he could help it, he'd make sure of it. And if he could he's take Zann out with him.

* * *

Ezra had no idea it was possible to be in such close proximity to so many people and still feel so alone. He was responsible for his own circumstances as well as Sabine's. Dral too he supposed, but he was having a hard time feeling the same magnitude of sympathy for the bounty hunter as he did for Sabine. He own feeling for her aside, she was unequivocally more sympathetic than the crass and mean spirited Dral.

He had to come clean to Sabine about his role in this, Kanan and Hera already knew what he had done to Zann, which left only Sabine and Zeb. He had thought on it, and decided to tell Zeb first, for two major reasons. First he felt that Zeb would understand what he did more than Sabine would. Second he wasn't suffering from any life threatening condition from his actions. Ezra knew he was taking the easy way out by talking to Zeb first, but Hera hadn't found of from him and it was hard to even look at her. He felt like she was thoroughly disappointed in him, and he couldn't help but feel that this was due in part to him not coming clean to her either.

Setting of to talk to Zeb Ezra wouldn't help to feel like a rock had dropped into his stomach, this was not going to be fun experience.

* * *

Sabine felt shell-shocked, feeling absolutely no motivation to move from her bunk, just staring at the ceiling, with the same thoughts echoing in her mind "Her father, her brother." It was almost too horrible to think about, but at the same time she couldn't shake the thought.

"Jaden." She whispered without even realizing it, her little brother, or rather half-brother, what they had done to him was beyond horrible, and she wished she had never read the report at all. But the fact her father sold him to the Empire to be experimented on, was almost too much to bear. She didn't recall much of her father any more, but the few clear memories she did have of him didn't betray any darker nature.

She couldn't help but wonder if the times it….he, had stared at her were because it somehow recognized her? That was impossible, she had never meet Jaden, but in a way she could swear he recognized her.

Following these thoughts came guilt, she had shot him and attacked him with the intent to kill, had lite his face on fire. She knew there was no way of knowing who he was, but still, that was her blood.

She had to talk to someone about this, anyone, it was to much for one person to bear on their own.

As if on cue a laoud knocking came from her cabin door.

"Hey! Sabine, let me in I need to ask you somthin'!" It was Dral.

* * *

The door opened with a "hisss" and Dral walked in "You got any…. Whoa." The look on Sabine face was one of someone who had lived a life time of misery, and she had clearly been crying. "I'll come back…" he made to step backwards out of the room.

"Dral do you have any family?" she asked before he could clear the room.

Letting out a heavy sign, he mentally kicked himself for letting himself get drawn in. He had made a carrier of being emotionally detached as he could with people, but he didn't know what it was with these people, maybe it was the extended period of time he'd found himself spending with them, maybe it was his own recent troubles, or maybe it was the fact he knew he really didn't have anywhere to go, but he found himself compelled to stay. "Yeah, I got my mom and a little brother and sister, well somewhere, haven't seen them in years, and their ten years younger than me, but yeah their out there."

This in turned stirred feeling he thought he had squashed years ago, any sense of attachment, but speaking about them outload seem to breath the life of reality back into them, and he felt a sick feeling in his gut.

"Dral what would you do, if you found out your mother had sold your brother or sister to someone, a slaver or someone …." He voice trailed off as she noticed the expression on his face darken and become absolutely thunderous. "Dral…." She began but he cut her off.

"You think you're clever?" he said in a voice barely above a whisper, but the amount of venom in his voice a palpable. She had no clue was he was thinking, but she was realized that she may of hit something close to home in him.

"Dral, what are you talking about?" her voice questioning and confused. That seemed to diffuse something in him, he face softened a little, he looked slightly lest dreadful, but his jaw started to clench tight, and she could tell he was grinding his teeth, as if he was growing less angry and more irritated.

* * *

That was a mistake on his part, he'd let him temper get the better of him and he jumped to the conclusion that she had found out something about his past, but now he realized that had been premature, she looked and sounded genuinely confused at his outburst.

"What are you talking about?" was all he responded with, his voice more even than before, but with an edge still in it.

She looked like she wanted to continue questioning him, but instead decided to continue her original line of questioning.

She lifted her datapad to him "The Shape, or JV-FR13, you know that thin….guy we paid you to help capture?"

"Well, you haven't paid me yet…." He started to say, but one look at Sabine's face told him now was not the time to bring up the issue of his payment. "Yeah, I remember than thing, what about it?"

She winced as he spoke, but she continued. "He…Dral, you know where he came from right? You read up on him right?"

Dral nodded, he had read up on the thing while he was planning to capture it, the thing came from an experiment station, some attempt at a super soldier.

"Dral, I've got more information on him." She said in a cracking voice.

Dral couldn't help but notice she was continually calling it "Him" or "He" rather than "It".

"His name was Jaden, Dral, he was just a little kid, and the Empire turned him into…." She trailed off, either unable or unwilling to find the words to describe what he had become.

Now Dral wasn't overly in touch with his feelings, but the thought of a young boy being taken and having…..things done to him against his will, that hit closer to home than anyone could realize. But he wasn't making the connection to family, why had she brought that up?

"Dral, he's my little brother, my father….he sold him to the Empire."

* * *

Sabine didn't really think Dral was the best person to talk to about this, Kanan or Hera would have been her first choice, but she needed to get it out, and sometime it was easier to talk to a relative stranger than someone one as close as family.

But his reaction to her questions was disturbing, he was acting like she was onto a secret of his when she asked him about family betrayal.

After she told him about her brother and father however, his face had gone as white as a sheet. Something she had said had scared him, and that was weird enough as it was, Dral didn't seem the type to be easily spooked.

"Dral you okay?" his ghostly complexion as driven everything else temporally to the back of her mind, he looked ready to faint straight away.

He was turning to leave, but his actions were slower than usual, like he was moving through wet cement.

"Dral, what's wrong?" she said while grabbing his shoulder to stop him, it was more than just a question about how he was acting in the moment, but she knew he was suffering from something else, PTSD to some degree.

"Leave me alone!" he practically shouted, spinning on her and throwing her hand off.

But they were both wired, their emotions at the straining point, and Sabine grabbed his shoulder and with much greater strength than one would expect for someone her size, tossed him back into the room.

She wasn't exactly sure why she was lashing out at him, he wasn't even remotely responsible, but she was tired, scared, angry, and more on edge than she had ever been. She was going to apologize immediately but, Dral rose to his feet with that thunderous expression back on his face, and swung his right fist at her, and hit nothing but air about a foot in front of her.

For a moment she was puzzled as to how an experience bounty hunter, and a Mandalorian no less, could make such a big miss, then looker into his one remain eye, he'd lost his depth perception with that eye. But that apparently didn't deter him as he wound up for another strike. Sabine didn't give him and chance and kicked him directly in the solar plexus doubling him over, gasping.

"Dral!" her voice was as stern as she could make it, as she knelt down next to him. "We're going to be on a hostile planet, with yours, mine and Ezra's lives on the line, I know you have some issues, but we needed to know if you are stable enough to help. I've kept it to myself so far, but that swing you just took at me is making me thinking of having Kanan lock you up while we look for that cure. Unless you give me a good reason why not to, I'm gonna go to him right now."

Dral glared daggers at her, but there was a defeated look under his eyes as well, like someone who was just tired of trying.

"What do you want me to say?" he whispered out.

"How about the truth?"

He started grinding his teeth, "Dral, keeping it bottled up inside isn't going to do you any favor, it's won't fix everything, but it helps to talk, that's why I told you what I did, get it out, it will help, trust me."

Dral's face slackened and he fell backwards onto the floor, resting has back against her bunk, and Sabine thought she might never have seen a more defeated and exhausted looking person. When they had meet Sabine already noted he looked quite a bit older than he was, that something, stress likely, was ageing him prematurely, and now that affect was greater than ever.

"Whatever, finer." He finally grunted out.

Well that was what she was after, and now she wasn't sure she was going to like what she heard.

* * *

Dral took a deep breath and looked Sabine in the eye "You noticed, I bet, that jumped on you a bit when you mentioned your little hypothetical question right?"

She nodded "Did your….." she began, but Dral raised his hand.

"You wanted to hear, don't interrupt." He took a deep breath "well, that's exactly what my mother did to me, sold me to a Hutt named Sorgruta, and he was…. Prone to unnatural things with humans, human boys….. he." He looked down at his hand shaking, the sure signs of one of his episodes.

"Dral…are are you." Sabine began, but was stopped by the frantic breathing of Dral, his shaking hands on his temples. "Dral, it's okay, you don't have to go on." She didn't need him to explain in detail what had happened to him as a child, Sorgruta was a Hutt with an absolute vile reputation, and even other Hutt's didn't want anything to do with him.

Dral raised one hand "Well you see why it triggered me, it happened to me, my mother sold me to that disgusting worm. She didn't know what would happen, she thought, and so did I, I was going to be learning some sort of trade skill, that they were paying her my labor wages in advance. But I spent three years as that worms toy, and finally when his compound got raided by another crime syndicate, I managed to get away, and from what I hear, Sogruta was reed to a hoard of rodents, too good to him."

Dral didn't even notice how close Sabine was, and only saw her when she pulled his hand away from his remaining eye, and took the other he had let drop in hers.

* * *

Sabine had thought Dral was suffering from some gruesome battle or seen a friend die, this was much more…disturbing. Not that battle trauma was any less horrible, but the protracted abuse, constant over three years, there was something unnaturally disgusting about doing that to a child.

She was crouched down in front of Dral, holding both his hands in hers. Looking into his one eye, she could see it was blood shot, and tears running out of his one eye, this was an emotional breaking point.

"Dral, I don't know what to say, but you don't have to deal with all this alone, no one should ever have to deal with, this sort of thing alone."

His prematurely aged faced soften slightly, then the first genuine smile she had ever seen on his face cracked the corners of his lips. He pulled his right hand free of hers and made a loose fist and taped her lightly on the shoulder.

"Hate admit it, but I feel better." He said as his hand feel back to his lap.

It took her a second to realize what he had said, but as soon as she processed it, it made her realize soothing as well, she was feeling better about what she read about her father and brother.

She still felt horrible, and there was still a tremendous weight in her stomach, but it had eased some. She supposed he was feeling the same way, letting someone else take some of the weight off, sharing the pain, it was cathartic to say the least.

Rising to her feet Sabine pulled Dral up with her, not as easy as she thought it would be, the guy was solid, but with both them on there feet, they stared at each other for a moment. It was at this time Sabine really started to appreciate that Dral was another Mandolorian just like here. Maybe it was him finally sharing some of his issues, but she felt more comfortable around him than before.

A sudden knocking on the door caused them both to jump, despite both of them blowing off some steam they were still high strung.

As they both looked to the door they heard Ezra's voice call through "Sabine, can I come in? I need to talk to you about something."

* * *

A/N: Okay, leave a review, tell me if you liked it, loved it, hated or felt totally indifferent.

The Next chapter will actually run partially alongside this one, with Ezra talking to Zeb and lead into where this one leaves off.


	13. Chapter 12

A/N: Okay new chapter up pretty quick, due in part to the fact that is really the second half of the last chapter rather than a totally separate chapter.

Also I'm going to be do my reference game again.

There is a reference to popular TV show hidden near the end of the chapter, if anyone can guess it, I'll update within 24 hours of a correct guess, if not I still plan on having the next chapter up within two weeks of this one.

Additionally, I will be doing an OC contest as well, if you guess correctly, I will included an OC you submit in one of the upcoming chapters, as I will be needing some character for certain events. I already have character made, but if you can get the reference, I will replace one of them with your character. If interested in lude the following data.

Name:

Age:

Race:

Occupation:

Skills:

Weapons:

Personality:

Short character history:

 **Also unlike my last contests, I'm giving a hint. The clue is in the last section of the story and you may have to use A Star Wars translator to find the answer.**

Good Luck!

Also a shout out to Classic Cowboy, who without fail always leaves a review. Thanks, it is truly appreciated.

Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to Disney and Lucas Film

Chapter 11

* * *

Ezra had never considered Zeb to be an overly cool personality. He was hot tempered and easy to irritate, but fairly laid back. But Ezra could see now the Honor Guard he had once been. The sternest look Ezra had ever seen on his face was glowering at him, and it made him more uncomfortable than the thought this encounter would have been.

He hadn't even gone into detail yet, he had just told Zeb he need to tell him the truth about Kamino. Apparently Zeb did not take kindly to being left in the dark.

"Go on, tell me the truth, what did you do." It was a statement, not a request, and Ezra knew he could back off now.

"The story I told you guys, with Zann and JV-Fr13, that wasn't really the truth." He paused here, trying to figure out the best way to explain it, before ultimately deciding that there wasn't any way to spin this any way other than the truth. "We didn't get separated or I just bolted. He was trapped under a collapsed beam, and that thing was knocking down the door. I probably could have saved him, but I didn't even try, I just left him to that thing." Ezra's voice trailed off as he

Zeb didn't blink, and Ezra felt his heart rate increase and himself start to warm up. Ezra continued "I just kept thinking about what he did to Sabine, and what he put us through, and I just could let him go Zeb!" his voice was getting louder without his realizing it. "He deserved it Zeb!"

Zeb still didn't respond, but leaned back against the wall and just stared at Ezra. What was probably only few seconds felt like hours to Ezra as he looked at Zeb.

"Ya screwed up Ezra."

Well, Ezra was expecting that, at least Zeb hadn't exploded him.

"You should have killed him yourself."

Ezra's mouth dropped open and his eye's bugged out. Were the conversation not so serious, it would have been funny.

"Zeb…"

"I'm not saying I approve of murder Ezra, but you decided that we would be better off if he was dead, and I can't argue that was wrong, but you made it clear to him you didn't intend for him to leave that facility, but then you left it to an animal to kill him."

"I don't…." Ezra stuttered out.

"Ezra you don't tell someone you want them dead, plan to let them die, then don't make sure they end up in the ground, especially if they are a known sociopath. Now look where we are, look where you are, and Sabine, and even Dral, if you can being yourself to care about him."

Zeb didn't sound overtly anger, in fact he sounded pretty even handed, but Ezra could tell there was disappointment edging into voice.

"I'm guessing, Kanan already knows?"

Ezra just nodded, he couldn't bring himself to talk at the moment and didn't really want to.

"Anyone else know?"

"Sabine is the only one who doesn't know yet." He muttered out.

"Well." Zeb said standing "You're gonna have to tell her, she has a right to know what happened, and if I was you, I'd do it sooner, rather than later."

Without another word, Zeb left the room, leaving Ezra to his own thoughts.

* * *

Dral and Sabine looked at the door as they heard Ezra's voice call through "Sabine, can I come in? I need to talk to you about something."

Dral looked back to Sabine, and gave her a playful hit on the shoulder "I'll leave you and wonder boy to your talk."

Opening the door, Dral walked past a befuddled looking Ezra, and even ruffled his hair as he past.

With his one good eye, he saw Ezra run his hand through his hair trying to fix it and give him a scowl. Dral smirked to himself, this kid was so easy to get going.

* * *

Ezra really didn't care for Dral, he was abrasive and he thought he was too close to Sabine. But the only reason he didn't go off on him for the stunt with his hair was he knew he was in no small way responsible for his condition.

Shifting this to the back of his mind, he had to get on task and get it over with. Turning to Sabine, the first thing he noticed was she looked exhausted, like she had just received a hug blow and was still reeling from it.

"Sabine…are you okay….did Dral!"

"No, Ezra, he didn't do anything, I've just been…. Never mind for now, what did you need to talk to me about."

Ezra wanted to press her to find out what was wrong, but he'd put off the whole ordeal to long, he needed to do it now.

"It's about Zann, and that night on Kamino we thought he died."

Sabine's eye's seemed to focus more, they still looked exhausted, but he knew he had her attentions.

This was much harder than telling Zeb, for more reason than one. But at his current situation, she was going to find out sooner or later, and it would just be better to get it over with now.

"When I said that thing separated me and Zann on Kamino" at this he thought he saw something in her eyes, but keep on moving forward he needed to keep going " that wasn't true, he got caught under some deris and I left him for that thing to finish off." He said the last word with more conviction in his voice than he actually felt. Following this, he could of sworn he saw tears in her eyes, and sudden urge to explain his actions overcame him "I know what's happened is my fault Sabine, but after what he did."

Sabine raised one hand to silence him "Ezra, pleases leave, I need to be alone." He voice was a whisper, but everything in its tone told Ezra he should listen to it.

Instead of doing so however, he tried to get her to understand and started talking again. "Sabine I."

"GET OUT!" she screamed at the top of her voice, and Ezra actually jumped back at the sudden tone change.

Ezra didn't need to be told twice as he beat a hasty retreat out of her cabin.

* * *

It was too much, too much information, her little brother, her father, Ezra's actions, no matter how indirectly were possibly to to get her killed, on top of Dral's own problems. She had learned too many dark secrets in to short a period of time, how was she supposed to cope with this? She knew she had in a way gone looking for the information with Dral and brother, but that didn't change the stress, and now Ezra had heap his own guilt onto her.

Without thinking, she punched the steel wall of her cabin, doing nothing other than making a loud "THUNG" and feeling several bones break in her hand.

Gritting her teeth together to keep herself from screaming, she went to the first aid kit she kept under her bunk.

* * *

It came as no surprise to Dral that the screaming from Sabine's cabin drew the attention of everyone on the ship. By the time he arrived back at the cabin, every member of the Ghost, minus Sabine, was surrounding Ezra, whole looked wholly confused.

Dral could hear the boy sputtering out some sort of explanation. "I knew she'd be upset but."

Dral didn't need to hear the rest or even have the context of the conversation Ezra had with Sabine. Dral didn't considered himself exactly a ball of fire in the brain's department, but it would of taken an extraordinarily stupid man to not understand Ezra had just unloaded an unpleasant piece of information on Sabine.

On any other day, whatever Ezra told her probably would have resulted in the hell razing shout he'd heard, but her own information on her brother and father, and Dral's own problems unloaded on her, plus the stress she was under from what Zann had done, Dral was willing to beat his remaining eye Sabine had just passed the breaking strain.

"You picked a real bad time to unload anything on her kid, she's got problems of her own." Dral said in the closest thing he had to calm collected voice.

Ezra's face went from the distressed confusion he had been showing to an ugly grimace. "Yeah Dral, we get that she's in trouble, but you and me are in the same boat."

"Not what I'm talkin' about shorty." Dral said crossing his arm. "She just found out a bad piece of information, that thing you had me huntin', the experiment. She just read his files, that thing is..or was may, her little brother. Her father sold him to the Empire." Dral said a cool voice that faked an indifference he really didn't feel.

The rest of the crew of the Ghost went pale.

Kanan spoke first "You're not."

"As the grave , it's all on the datapad she has, have look, and if I was you, I'd give her a few hours to cool down before any of you try to talk to her." And with that Dral turned and left them to process the news.

Dral didn't normally like to tell other people's business, but Sabine would have told them anyway and frankly he was certain they'd leave her alone for a little while, if for nothing else to process the information and figure out how to talk to her.

* * *

Hera was still processing Dral's proclamation. Without saying a word to anyone else, she made break for the cockpit, to access the data she had saved there. She hardly noticed Zeb, Kanan and Ezra on her heels.

At the console she pulled out the file on JV-Fr13 and scrolled back to the earliest logs. Without a doubt the boy's name was listed, as was his father's Atin Wren.

She felt like throwing up. That thing was just a child, no older than nine, brutally turned into a tool of death and destruction. That was horrifying enough, but the fact it was Sabine younger brother, and he father had sold him. That cut deep, the fact the Empire had done this at all was horrible, but to child, that was the vilest thing Hera had ever heard of.

"By the Force." Kanan muttered just behind her.

That was apparently all anyone could say, they were all at a loss for words, because none of them knew how to bring this to Sabine, how to comfort her or console her.

* * *

Sabine hand bound her hand as best she could, but frankly her mind wasn't on her work. She wanted to just go to sleep and let everything slip away in sleep, but her thought were filled with too many grim thought, thoughts that had the power to murder sleep with a thousand nightmares. She knew she'd have to sleep soon, they'd be at Dathomir fairly soon, and she needed to be well rested.

Pressing the heel of her one unbroken hand into her eye, she rubbed her right eye then the left, and found them wet with tears. She couldn't believe it, she hadn't cried it years, but her she was holed up in her room, by herself crying, like some stupid teenager. She realized with a start that was exactly what she was, a teenager, and she had been burdened with far more information than she really ever should be given, and now she was in horrible spot for it.

Pulling her knees up to her chest and crossing her arms over them, she put her head down and let the tears flow.

* * *

Dral couldn't help but feel sorry for Sabine, and bit responsible for her emotional break. He shouldn't have told her about his own problems, it went against his better instincts, but he had held it inside for so long, it just felt good to get it off his chest.

He also couldn't help but wonder what would of happened if he had arrived after Ezra. He got a fairly good beat down when she was much more stable, and didn't have the history with her Ezra did. She might have shot him if he had set her off, if that loud bang was any indication of her current hair trigger temper.

Shaking his lead, he tried to hunker down in the cargo hold and get some sleep, it wouldn't be restful, but he needed do something to set his mind off all the drama of the day/

* * *

He just couldn't do anything right it seemed, was all Ezra thought as he slumped to his bunk. Every one of his actions lately was blowing up in his face. Leaving Zann to JV-Fr13, or Jaden he supposed now, had back fired in a colossal manner, and coming clean on it to Sabine had put her over the edge.

He just wished he could convey to her how he felt, but right now he was a complete failure in her eyes, he was sure of it. And he was paranoid that she was attracted to Dral, which he knew on an intellectual level was ridiculous, the man was a wreck emotionally and physically. But he was a Manadolrian like her, and older than Ezra, which he just felt worked in his favor.

Flopping down on his bunk, he covered his eyes and let out a grown of frustration.

* * *

Tyber Zann's Flagship

Tyber didn't know what happened on the Shadow of Intent, but from his own guesses, the fight had gone largely as he as supposed it would, granted the Inquisitors had lived, but only because the thing they were fighting had apparently disappeared. The most reasonable explanation was that it had somehow been ejected, but that not was the chatter from the fight indicated. It was like the thing had just vanished in a cloud of mist.

Now he didn't claim to be an expert of the force, Urai was more informed on that aspect of the galaxy, but he knew that some force users could develop incredibly strange powers, but the ability to vanish into nothing was not one he was familiar with.

The Inquisitors had sent a request for back up, something they were going to use to hunt down JV-Fr13. From what he could understand it was some type of hardware rather than more troops or Inquisitors, which he was grateful for, he didn't want more of them on his ship if he could help it.

He had a meeting with the Grand Inquisitor and his two subordinates in a few minutes, and planned on very much telling them he told them so. IT was childish, but he loved watching the high and mighty get knocked on their rear, so long as it wasn't him.

"Zann." A cool voice came from behind him. His heart nearly jumped into his throat, they had entered the room to without him noticing, not something he wanted to occur with a grunt, let alone a triad of highly skilled killers.

"Grand Inquisitor." He said turning to great them "Welcome back from Safari, I'm sorry the game got the better of you." He said smirking

The Fiith Brother and Seventh sister both started at him, but the Grand Inquisitor stopped them. "Zann, Orders from Lord Vader are for you to escort us to Dathomir."

'What?' Tyber thought to himself that was odd, they want him to bring them half-wat across the galaxy to do what? What more, that was where he sent the rebels, did they know? No, they couldn't, but he needed to know.

"Why? Dathomir is a back water world, why there?"

"We have data saying the experiment is heading to Dathomir, we have a new tool for the job and we believe we can capture it this time."

"Oh, I was aware that thing could work a ship's hyper drive, I suppose odder things have happened."

"Yes, they have." The Grand Inquisitor said and simply left and very suspicious Zann alone in the room.

* * *

The Seventh Sister spoke first as they made their way to hanger. "Grand Inquisitor, what is type of reinforcements are we to receive? It's not another inquisitor is it?" her voice traced with some concern, worried over another competitor for Lord Vader's praise.

"No, he is something….else." The Grand Inquisitor, said as they approached the shuttle that was landing in the hanger.

And down the ramp walked one of the most imposing figure the Sister had ever seen. This man, if he was a man, was over 8 feet tall, clad in black armor that looked like it was made of metal of the mask if the thing they had fought. It had a helmet that looked vaguely mandolin, but much less streaming and it looked like it should be a shambling uncoordinated mess, but when he walked he was much quicker and graceful than you would think a man of this size would be. It had dual wrist mounted blasted and a huge vibroblade strapped to his back.

"What is that?" The firth brother muttered more a little uneasy.

The Grand Inquisitor spoke "A near perfect prototype of the thing we fought. The same armor they developed on Kamino completely encasing him, along dozen of cybernetic enhancements, which is why he can be controlled. He's only missing the JV-Fr13's biology to keep him fighting indefinitely. With Sith sorcery, he was all but perfect by Lord Vader while that thing was being finalized on Kamino. We just need to capture that thing to make him the first of a new legion of perfect soldiers."

The Sister looked this man, if still was one, up and down, and would be lying if she said he wasn't impressive, but she'd wait to see how he fought before she got behind these as the new soldiers of the Empire.

"What do we call him?" she finally said

"We've taken to calling him 'Tave Kruva Anas Aleja'." The Grand Inquisitor said, with a cool and collected voice.

* * *

A/N: Okay Please leave a review and remember, if you want an earlier release for the next chapter, try and have guess at what the reference is.

Also remember, if you're interested, submit an OC.


	14. Chapter 13

A/N: Alright, like I promised, within 24 hours of some correctly guessing the reference you would get this chapter, and I had two people correctly guess is it.

Congratulations to Kid-N7 and Wind Paradox (who seems to be making a carrier of winning these contests), both of whom correctly guessed the reference the new soldier's is a reference to Gregor Clegane from A song of Ice and Fire and the TV series adaptation Game of Thrones, also known as "The Mountain that Rides" do to his huge size. Be on the lookout for their characters within the next few chapters.

I'd also like to make a mini contest out of this as well, this character needs a proper given name, I can't keep calling him "The Mountain" or "Tave Kruva", well I could but it will get kind of awkward. So here's the mini contest, give me a list of names for him, I don't want to call him Gregor for obvious reasons, and I'd like for him to have a name.

I'd also like to take submissions for names for the Inquisitors as well, for similar reasons, names will be easier to write.

You can submit as many as you want, and If I pick one of your suggestions, the same deal as the last chapter goes, I'll included one of your OC's. I've got a lot of open spots I can fill with OC's. So the way this could work we could have one winner, or as many as four, so submit as many names as you want to increase your chances.

If interested include the following data.

Name:

Age:

Race:

Occupation:

Skills:

Weapons:

Personality:

Short character history:

Now this one is different because it's me judging the names rather some correct answer so try to come up with some good ones!

Well enough of that, onto the story

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

Chapter 12

* * *

"Just arrived my foot." Tyber grumbled to himself, there was no way reinforcements arrived that quickly from outside the system, they had to of been waiting somewhere close by. He didn't know what that meant in a larger sense, but he knew it meant they had somehow snuck into the system without his knowledge.

That however didn't concern him as much as the fact he was now escorting the Imperial equivalent of a hit squad right to where he had sent the Rebels to find his cure. If an Imperial Star Destroyer appear in orbit didn't cause them to scuttle, the presence of three Inquisitors and there now murder machine would certainly distract them from what he needed them to do.

Tyber didn't know if they were onto him or not, but in the end it didn't matter, he'd have to delay them as much as he could, but he couldn't do it in an obvious manner, engine problems would make the most sense, he could delay them for a few days with that, but if they decided to just take a smaller ship, there wasn't much he could so to stop them. No, he needed a more… aggressive delay to keep them from their destination.

Walking to his command console, he activated it, he needed to make a call.

* * *

"So does it talk?" The Fifth brother sneered at the new comer.

"He can, but doesn't really care to." The Grand Inquisitor responded in a dead pan tone.

"He looks about as clever as piece of stone, guess his name makes sense." The Fifth brother said in a whisper that was clearly meant to be heard by Tave Kruva.

The man in the armor slowly turned his head to look at the Fifth Brother, causing the Seventh Sister to make a comment.

"Awww, I think you hurt his feelings." She said in a mocking tone.

"I just don't want this thing slowing us down, it's big and clunky, now way we're going to be able to move undetected with that thing!"

"Why don't you test him then, if you can kill him then their no point bringing him along is there?" She responded in a half-mocking, half serious tone. The Fifth brother mocking anyone for lack of grace or stealth was the pot calling the kettle black in her opinion, he was a brute in every sense of the word, his fighting technique was little better than the creature they had fought on the Shadow of Intent.

Glancing at the Grand Inquisitor however, she saw on his face he had no intention of stopping a fight.

The Brother looked from the Seventh Sister, to the Grand Inquisitor to the Tave Kruva, and smirked and ignited his double bladed light saber.

Tave Kruva didn't say anything but pulled the huge vibroblade off his back.

The Seventh Sister and Grand Inquisitor stepped back to let the two have at it.

The Fifth Brother smirked "Do you know who I am?" the confidence in his voice flowing out in waves.

IT was then that all three Inquisitors heard Tave Kruva spoke for the first time "Some dead man." A deep rumbling voice came from the helmet and lunged forward with far greater speed than someone his size should have been able to move at.

Quicker than expected but still not quick enough to catch the Fifth Brother off guard. He side stepped the huge swung and brought his blade onto the giants back, only to find it deflect of the new armor.

This was enough time for Tave Kruva to back swing his blade and this time, the Fifth Brother barely managed to dodge it, the blade humming less than an inch past his stomach.

This wasn't going at all like he expected.

* * *

The Seventh Sister smirked as she saw her companions lightsaber deflect off his opponent's armor. He never did pay attention to the details, that armor was the same as the mask and blade of JV-Fr13, it wouldn't be so easy to pierce.

Now his favored method of attack, overpowering his opponents was far less likely to work now, given the size of Tave Kruva. "Tave Kruva", an appropriate name "The Mountain" indeed.

The vibroblade connected with the lightsaber, casuing sparks to fly and The Fifth Brother was forced back.

The commotion was attracting the attention of the crew in the hanger and troopers and crew workers were gathering around in a circle to watch the match.

The Fifth Brother was forced on the defensive now, he wasn't used to being overpowered and was forced to used acrobatics he wasn't extremely comfortable doing.

"The Mountain" on the other hand was moving with deliberate ferocity, his swing wide and powerful, not extremely swift, but the length of the blade kept the Inquisitor at bay.

Then the fight turned nasty, just as The Fifth Brother doged another swing of the massive vibroblade, a Stormtrooper who had gotten to close lost his hand to "The Mountain" and started screaming in agony.

"Shut Up!" Kruva shouted and took the top of the Troopers head off with another massive swing, going through his helmet like it was not even there.

"Such a violent disregard for like." The Seventh Sister whispered to herself, biting her lower lip, trying to hide a smile.

This distraction however was not missed by the Fifth Brother. Reaching out with the force he grabbed the gigantic vibroblade and yanked it out of the distracted giant's hand.

The confused Tave Kruva for a moment, but he didn't have time to think as he was suddenly lifted into the air and slammed onto the ground by an invisible force.

Flat on his back, Kruva stopped moving.

The Seventh Sister's smile turned into a frown that was rather anti-climactic, he didn't put up much a show against a force user did he?

The Fifth Brother approached his downed opponent, a smirk creasing his brutal looking face. Walking next to the giant, he point the tip of his lightsaber into the helmet's visor, less than an inch away.

"You give up giant? Or should I finish you now?"

Tave Kruva didn't respond with word, but quick as a snake, his right arm lashed out, taking the Fifth brother legs out from under him, sending him to the ground.

Before he could gather himself, a massive armored hand clasped around his throat pulling him close. Beofre he could even try to bring his lightsaber to strike his opponent, another larger armored fist struck him squarely in the jaw, sending blood and teeth flying.

* * *

The Grand Inquisitor looked on dispassionately as "The Mountain" flipped himself over on top the Fifth Brother, placing both hands on his head, and while he couldn't see what he was doing, the Fifth Brother screams of pain made it pretty clear what was happening.

Glancing to the Seventh Sister, he noticed a face that expressed shock, fear, and more than little excitement.

Several troopers looked like they wanted to pull the giant off the Inquisitor but a quick look at the Grand Inquisitor, made them back off.

With a sickening wet sounding crunch that almost sounded like a ball bursting the screams stopped.

* * *

The Ghost

The planet Dathomir looked foreboding to Kanan. The force was strong on this world, he could feel it from here. The Dark side was present as well, not completely dominate, but it held more sway than the Light did. He didn't think it was wise to bring Ezra here, he was already struggling with the lure of the Dark Side, but it wasn't fair to him to not let him come, his life was in the balance, and what was more he felt Ezra needed to in some way make up for his actions, to make amends in some way for the problem he has inadvertently caused.

As of now, they were waiting for contact from Zann's contact on the planet, an unknown person Kanan already didn't trust despite knowing nothing about him or her. But any association with Tyber Zann was enough to make Kanan distrustful of someone.

As if on cue, the comm-channel opened and a deep, cool and vaguely familiar voice came through the comm-system.

"Ghost, this is your Zann Consortium contact, proceed to following coordinates and wait for further instructions." And with that the voice cut out.

* * *

Everyone was gathered in the sitting room, and Kanan had never thought he's seen his team more miserable. Ezra and Sabine looked perpetually exhausted, Zeb had never looked so grim and Hera looked as lost as he had ever seen her. Dral was the only one who looked even remotely like what Kanan had thought looked like his usual self, but he didn't know if that good or bad. He supposed his lack of attachment to the crew might be a factor, but Kanan thought it might be closer to the fact that Dral was constantly teetering on some sort of mental or emotional break.

"Look, we got the message from Zann's contact." Kanan started as best he could, but he wasn't sure how to proceed with what needed to be said. "I know emotions are running high, but we need to a united group here, we're dealing with a dangerous criminal element on an even more hostile planet, we can't be sniping at each other or hold things in."

"We need to clear the air, and I know…we've all received some terrible news these past few days, and…" his voice trailed off as he looked at Sabine, who was the one who had been hit the hardest by all this, but he continued "We don't need to go over it, we all know what's happened and what we need to do, but we have to be a cohesive unit here, we can get distracted or side tracked with other issues, this is life or death."

No one responded, and Kanan took their silence as confirmation of their understanding. "Hera, get ready to take us down."

* * *

Dral didn't need more than five seconds on the planet's surface to know he didn't like it here. The planet felt hostile and primitive, he was no force user, but it was clear this planet was not nearly as developed as other worlds he was on. He was willing to bet it was do both the Republic and CIS had no influence on this planet, beyond having some conflicts here and the Empire still didn't have a foot hold here. He didn't know if it was due to the planet lacking something they wanted, or the rumors of the incredibly fierce native populations. The truth was probably somewhere in between, anything this planet had wasn't worth the effort to take, or at least not yet any way.

He was trailing behind the rest of the crew and was extremely reluctant to venture far from the ship, but he knew that was where this whole ordeal was leading eventually, but at least they would have a guide when they did.

Dral suddenly felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and suddenly felt like he was being watched. Wiping out his blaster, he spun on his heels, and was meet but a humming blade that severed his blaster in two, and taking his first two fingers with it.

* * *

Ezra didn't know if he heard the hum of the vibroblade first or Dral's scream of pain and anger, but in unison with the rest of the Ghost crew they all had their weapons trained on what looked like an actual ghost.

It took Ezra moment to realize that it was just a fading personal cloak fading, and before them stood Urai Fen, his two large blades held in his hand, one strekwed with blood, standing a kneeling Dral who cradled his bleeding hand.

"Welcome to Dathomir Rebels." He said in his cool collected voice, not even addressing he just cut off a man's fingers. Dral, still muttering curses to himself as he pulled out a piece of fabric to wrap his hand in, glared at the Consortiums second in command.

Ezra should have guessed, that last time they had encountered Urai, it was clear he was Zann's number two and the only being in the galaxy the crime lord trusted.

Kanan spoke up first "Get away from him." He gestured at Dral with the hand not hold his blaster, "and start to get to the point, we're not exactly in the mood for games."

Urai obliged, but looked so calm, you wouldn't think he had half a dozen blasters point at him.

"You come for the cure, and I will lead you to it, however, this is not going to be as easy as you seem to think it is."

All Ezra could think was "Great, another set of trials or a maze to run through to get what we need."

However Kanan spoke next "Explain, and quick."

Urai's avian eye appraised Kanan, then slowly went over the rest of the crew before finally landing on Ezra, and for a moment, Ezra felt like a cold wind was blowing overhim, despite the fact it was extremely warm here.

"I trust you are familiar with the Witchs of Dathomir?"

A slight gaze of confusion crossed all their faces, everyone except Kanan.

"The CIS wiped them out during the Clone Wars, their gone" was all Kanan said.

"No, they destroyed a Night Sister Clan, but the Witches of Dathomir are still here Jedi, and we will need to convince them to trade their secret to us if your friends are to survive."

"Wait!" Zeb spoke up, "isn't is just a plant or somthin'? What secret would we need?"

"No, it is in fact a brew, made from several components, the location of which are not known to outsiders, and the procedure is a well-kept secret. The Witch's of this tribe have been known to offer this brew to outsiders, but not easily, we must go now, and we don't have much time."

With that Urai turned and started to walk in what was apparently the direction of the village.

* * *

Sabine couldn't believe Dral's luck, or lack of it. He just kept losing pieces of himself, she watched his back as he continued to grumble to himself. She already felt bad for him, given everything that already happened to him, but she didn't think she'd be able to talk to him right now, for one she didn't really want to talk to anyone, two Dral was clearly not in the mood to talk.

Instead she honed in conversation between Kanan and Urai. Kanan was trying to pick all information he could from Urai and the Consortium lieutenant was surprisingly willing to divulge.

"The brew is used for witches who immune systems are failing or weakened, either through diseases or age, although sometimes are rare genetic disorder's it is sometimes used to cure."

Well that piece of information, was encouraging, at least it seemed to track with what they needed. But Urai had said they weren't willing to just give it out to outsiders. They needed to be tested, part by the Witchs themselves, then in part by gathering the ingredients themselves.

But Urai had mentioned that actually taking the brew would cause the taker to go through a long period of hallucinations, lasting as long as a day in some cases, as the body's natural immune system was reset and strengthen.

But what was scaring her most was the fact that many of the ingredients were toxin on their own, and if not prepared properly.

She also started to wonder how he managed to gather all this information. He either spent a great deal of time spying on this tribe, or had developed some sort of relationship with the.

Given the pieces of information she had picked up from Urai, the spying aspects seemed more likely, the witches were apparently no overtly friendly of outsiders, what's more is men were trusted even less.

"I suggest you let your pilot do the talking once we arrive, they will listen to a woman more readily than a man, and you need to keep them as open as possible to your plight."

Sabine couldn't help but notice Urai kept talking as if they were the only ones in need of this cure. He was acting like Tyber didn't need it as well, and maybe that was intentional, to keep them thinking in terms of themselves rather than what might help Tyber.

He proably knew that at best if any one of them meet Tyber again they'd try to shoot him on sight, and didn't want them distracted from the task at hand.

As they approached a forested area, Urai made straight for an earth path that lead into the depth of the forest.

"Stay on the trail, if they think you are trying to sneak up on them or lurking on their lands, they may kill you on site. We must approach as honest travelers, that is the only way the will be open to listen

In her life Sabine had seen her fair share of wilderness, but this forest just seem…. The best way she could describe it was older than any other wilderness area she had ever been, it almost felt like it was alive, and not in the sense of a normal forest, more like it was one living entity, and she felt a sudden sense of dread overcome her as a chill ran down her spine.

She was so keyed up that, she nearly screamed when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

* * *

Dral felt Sabine jump a little on as his hand fell on her shoulder, and he couldn't blame her, this planet was creepy.

"Sabine, I need to ask you somthin', can ya talk while we walk?"

He could tell she wanted to say no, but also knew she knew that it really wasn't an option to say no, if he wanted to talk, he'd do it anyway.

She didn't say anything, just shrugged and followed the others as they traveled into the forest. He took that as a "yes".

"Alright, look I understand that there are risk's in every job, and especially as a bounty hunter, well, the risks are naturally higher, but I keep losing stuff around you people, first my ship and most of my equipment, then my eye and now." He help up his hand with the two missing fingers. "I hate to be this guy, but are you people gonna make this right, I know you promised a substantial reward for the work I did, but I'd settle for a new eye and pair of fingers at this point." And he meant it to, he wasn't sure how much longer he'd live if he stuck around with a group of individuals that routinely were hunted by supernatural killers.

"Are you serious? You don't think this can wait until we're done here?" Sabine said in as much of a whisper she could manage, trying desperately not to blow up.

"Yeah, I'm serious, you people are bad for my health, I might not last much longer around you." And he found that this statement made his stomach turn a bit. He knew it was true, but he had found himself beginning to actually grow somewhat fond of this group of misfits, even Ezra, as annoying as the little turd could be sometimes. But he had to look out for himself, no one else would.

"Dral, I'm sorry about…everything, but we didn't do it to you!" Sabine's voice was rising, and she caught herself and brought her voice back down. "We made a promise to you, and we'll give you what we promised, but right now, we have to get this done. After that you won't have to see us again."

* * *

"After that you won't have to see us again." The phrase made Sabine feel like the bottom had fallen out of her stomach. Never seeing Dral again suddenly didn't seem like something to look forward to. To her, she did not think he should be alone. He was emotionally unstable and apparently never sought help for his own issues, and she was certain if he was left alone in the galaxy, he's be dead before long, and that made her stomach sink even more..

Her voice softened as she spoke again "Look Dral, I don't think you should be on your own okay? I know you've been having a rough patch." he snorted at this understatement "but what have you got out there? Another job for some crime lord or the Empire? IF you stayed with us, well you could at least get back at the Empire."

Dral smirked at this and she didn't know if she liked the look on his face "You aren't just trying to get me to stick around because of my charming good looks now are ya?"

Sabine couldn't help but gasp out a short laugh, she didn't consider Dral ugly, but his bronzium teeth, prematurely aged face and the first signs of the receding hair did not make what Sabine would consider "charming good looks." But she knew what he was doing, he was deflecting, or trying to, to avoid what she had said.

"I'm serious Dral, you could help make some difference against Empire if you stay with the Rebellion, maybe even get back at Kallus or Zann if you stick around."

That seemed to give him some time to think, but he just shrugged and said "Maybe."

"We've arrived." She heard Urai's voice come from the front of the group, and looking forward she saw several witches coming forward.

As per Urai instructions Hera stepped forowrd to address the group.

Before she could speak however the Dathomiri woman is front spoke first "Welcome travelers, to the Singing Mountain clan, what may I ask brings you here?"

Her voice was pleasant and welcoming, but it still range with suspicion and wariness.

"I am Hera Syndulla, and these are my companions, we wish to speak with your leader, we need your help and it's a matter of life and death."

* * *

A/N: Okay there you have it, a bit of a cliffhanger. Next Chapter will go back the Tyber and Inquisitors and the results of the Fifth Brother's dual with "The Mountain."

Please leave a review and tell me what you think


	15. Chapter 14

AN: Okay, I would like to say I am really sorry for the long wait in the updates. I was hit by a car and while I wasn't hurt, I put me in a funk where I really didn't want to do anything, but I'm back on track now, so here we go.

Also, I know people have OC's that I promised to involve in the story. I haven't forgotten about you, and if you won and want to change something go ahead and PM me.

Also, with Recent Episodes in Star Wars Rebels, it's pretty clear that this story is a slight AU, especially in Sabine's family regard. That was always my intent because I knew something like this was likely to happen.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned b Disney and LucasFilm.

* * *

Chapter 14

* * *

"Is he dead?" Tyber asked the medical officers as he looked at Fifth Brother's body floating in a bacta tank

"No, not yet at least, his species has some bizarre biological traits, the one that saved him is a secondary brain at the base of his spine, kept him alive long enough to get him into the bacta tanks." The medical officer said as he tweaked some of the conditions in the tanks. "Still, he won't survive out of it for long unless he does some heavy cybernetic replacements and modification to him."

Tyber looked at the Fifth Brother, he never liked these second rate Sith, granted he didn't think too highly of the real thing either, but at least they tended to have an air of authority that most Inquisitors, with a few exceptions, failed to have.

However, as commanding officer, it was up to Tyber to approve any sort of medical procedure of the cost that level, or if it was more cost effective to just let them die.

Normally, Tyber would just let this fellow slide off to whatever hell would have him, but this presented and opportunity for him to finally get event's going the way he wanted. The medical staff on this ship were lucky, personally under his control.

"Go ahead and schedule the surgery, I want it done before we reach our destination, I'll send up a list of the cybernetics' you'll be using."

The medical officer looked at him, understanding in his eyes, he knew he was about to be part of a medical procedure that was not likely to be legal.

* * *

The Seventh Sister arrived in the medical bay, frankly indifferent to the state of her "partner", he'd gotten careless because e thought he had won, forgetting you never win until your opponent is dead. She was fairly impressed his that having most of his head crushed like a grape didn't kill him, but that was more a fact of biology than skill.

As she approached the door to the medical bay, she was cut off by Tyber Zann, the Imperial Captain in charge of the operation at hand.

She didn't trust him, and not in the general way she didn't trust imperial officers. That feeling stemmed for how she believed they were in large incompetent in anything outside of typical warfare operations, but incapable of dealing with insurgency.

She didn't get that with Zann, he was cunning in way's most officer weren't, which made sense, given his background. But she could sense something else about him, that told her if she underestimated him, she would regret it.

Despite this, she greeted him with as much respect as would be expected of her. "Hello Captain, how's the patient?" she asked while not really caring for the answer.

"He'll live, with surgery, he'll be receiving it later today." He said looking at the wall, then, as if struck by a thought, he turned to her. "In relation to this…event…. What can you tell be about the….. Fellow who did this? I've heard the stories and read the files, but to beat an inquisitor means he must be more than the common solider."

She a bit surprised by the request, given a man like him usually knew things someone even three ranks higher than himself wouldn't be privy to, but decided there was no harm in telling him what she knew, which was really just rumors at the end of the day.

"Probably not much I can tell you that you don't already know, he's the first in a new line of Imperial Solider…" she was cut off by his hand waving her off, as if she he didn't care what she had to say. Clenching her teeth and balling her fist's at the dismissive gesture, she was ready to lash out at him before he cut her off.

"I know all that, I want to hear more about the rumors of Sith Sorcery and Alchemy, that this thing is more than a triumph of science."

Again he surprised her, in her experience most non-force users didn't make any real distinction between the Sith or Jedi and the Light or Dark, and those that did had only the most academic idea of what the force, describing the force to a non-force user was to her like trying to describe color to a person who was blind from birth. He had just dropped the names of two Sith Art's that even some force users she'd meet didn't know about.

But she'd heard the same rumors, but only among other inquisitor's, she hadn't heard them outside that circle of force users. But he knew them, or at least heard of them, that put her on guard, but she really couldn't tell him more than he apparently already knew.

"Well, I believe you already know the rumors, that some sort of Sith magic was used in his "creation", but I couldn't tell you what was done or even if it's true."

"No, but shouldn't you be able to sense if there is something done to him? You are a force user yourself after all."

On that note, he was right, she SHOULD, be able to sense if there was some sort of Sith power in "The Mountain", but she didn't. Normally that would be end of this line of thought, but it wasn't that simple.

She could feel something about him, but couldn't pin down what it was. She wasn't sure if the force was just warning her about the giant or if he had some sort of latent force presences in him.

But she wasn't about to tell Zann that she unsure of something, he'd view it as a weakness. It was better to just make it seem like the rumors were just rumors with no bases in fact.

"I sense nothing in "The Mountain" to indicate those rumors are true, by all accounts he is just the latest in a line of Imperial attempts to make a more affective killing machine."

Tyber looked her up and down, and she could tell, not just in the force but in has face, that he was deciding whether he believed her or not.

"Very, well" he finally said. "Go on you way."

With that he went off down the hall until he turned a corner and went out of site.

This was not a man to be underestimated, he was suspicious of her answer and now he'd probably look more deeply into the matter himself. She didn't care if he did or didn't to be frank, but she could sense something about him that told her he needed to be watched, like he was an old bomb that hadn't been disarmed, something that appeared to be harmless, only for it to suddenly blow up in your face if you got to careless around it.

* * *

Dathomir

Hera had explained the situation to the Witches, and Ezra just stood there watching as the Witches present discussed the situation among themselves.

"What do think their talking about?" Ezra heard Zeb ask Kanan.

"Probably whether or not to help, I doubt they are exactly trusting of outsiders after the CIS did here during the war."

Ezra was intent to keep listening, hoping he might learn some more of what happened here during the war, but Kanan and Zeb's conversation was stopped by the approach of one of the witches.

"Which of you three require the aid of the cure?"

Kanan shoved Ezra forward, while Dral and Sabine stepped forward on their own, and it crossed Ezra's mind to say something to Kanan, but thought better of it.

"You three follow me." with that, the Witch was off.

Ezra, Sabine and Dral looked at each other, then to the rest of the group, but Urai spoke before anyone else.

"Go, these witches will not harm you, you are guests here who have shown no ill intent, and you will be safe enough."

Ezra did not exactly find this the voice of reason and comfort but followed the witch no the less.

The village was extremely primitive to his eyes, but Ezra knew looks could be deceiving.

They followed in silence for what felt like to Ezra for hours, but knew it couldn't of been more than a few minutes, but Dral and Sabine weren't speaking and he wasn't feeling extremely talkative himself.

Without warning the witch spoke. "You are outsiders, so you will deal with Kira, she isn't wasn't born in the Clan either."

"Hold on." Ezra finally spoke up "I thought you we're gonna help us, not bring us to…."

"Did we say that?" the witch cut him off. She didn't wait for him to respond "No, we didn't, you will have to earn our help, and while Kira is an outsider, she'd been with the clan for years, and know the workings of the outside galaxy better than we do. She will decide if you will receive our aid and what you must do". With that the witch stopped in front of a hut and gestured inside.

Ezra didn't like that explanation, sounded like they would have a test, but didn't say anything as they entered the hut.

* * *

Sabine was a bit taken aback by Kira's appearance. This witch didn't look like her comrades in almost every regard, indeed if it weren't for the markings on her face that all the witches had, she could have passed for a modern citizen of the galaxy. Her clothing looked like a modern, if humble, fashion in the Core worlds. Her hair was not the dark black of the other witches, but a bright fiery red, no attempt to conform to the local's appearance.

She just looked like almost any other woman you would see on a core world. Yet at the same time, something about her sent chills down Sabine's spine, she wasn't force sensitive but she was sure that's what it was, something in the force. She knew the witches of Dathomir were some of the most potent force users in the galaxy.

"Hello Kira" Sabine began "My name is Sabine Wren, this is…"

Before she could finish Kira interrupted her "I know who you all are, and why you've come, you've come for help." She said in a whisper, her voice having a raspy quality to it the reminded Sabine of someone who hadn't spoken for a very long and there voice became gravely with dis-use. "But, as you must know, something cannot be given for nothing, a price must be paid."

Sabine cut her eye's to Ezra and Dral, and noticed both looking at her, if this woman wanted money, they were going to have a hard time filling that request, but Sabine had a feeling that wasn't what was being asked.

"So what exactly…" Sabine began, but was silenced when Kira raised her hand.

"There are ingredients you must gather, or of not you a family member. The ingredients are not easily found or obtained, as is the trial for this cure you seek."

"Wait." Ezra started "We never told you.." he too was silence with a raised hand.

"I know things, the Force reveals much to me child, and one day it will to you as well, if you ever master it."

Ezra didn't continue and let her speak.

"I myself am an outsider here, and I came at a time when this tribe was more welcoming to outsiders." Her eye's landed on Sabine for a moment before she continued "I too sought there cure and managed to pass the trials of gathering the ingredients. I choose to stay and now I here I am." Her eye's scanned the three of them before she continued "I cannot, on my own, allow you to do these trials, but I can give you a chance to attempt them."

"Hold on, I thought you were gonna "handle us", what do means you can't do it?" Dral barked out. Sabine hoped he keep his temper in check.

"Only in the examination process, I'm an outsider, and I choose whether or not outsiders are even given the chance to try. We all can sense the feeling of you and your crew, but I have a more intimate knowledge of what the outside galaxy is like and pick up of nuances in the force some of my sisters may not notice or recognize for what they are."

"So…Do we pass?" Ezra asked, the faintest note of anxiety in his voice.

Kira looked them over, rubbing her hand over her mouth, "Yes…I think you all will get your chance, tomorrow you will get the opportunity to prove you are worthy of the trials."

"Thank, we are…" Sabine began

"Save your gratitude girl, I didn't do anything other than given you a chance at a chance." Kira said then gestured at Dral and Ezra. "You two leave, head back to you friends, I wish to speak to the firl alone."

Dral and Ezra looked back and forth between each other and Sabine.

"Go ahead, I'll be fine."

* * *

Dral and Ezra

"I don't like leaving her alone in there with that witch, she gives me the creeps." Ezra said to Dral. The fact he was talking so openly with Dral showed how concerned he was.

"She's a big girl, she can look after herself just fine." Dral said with looking at Ezra. "If they wanted to kill us they'd of done it by now, way too many of them for us to do anything about."

His matter of fact manner didn't do anything to put Ezra at ease. He didn't need to be a Jedi to tell that Dral was prone to pretty drastic swings in emotions, ranging for fairly laid back, to suicidality angry to cataclysmically depressed .He clearly had issues, and Ezra didn't put it past him to not care if he lived or died. Which was sad, but Ezra sympathy to Dral didn't extended to the point where he'd tolerate him putting anyone in danger.

But calling him out on his issue didn't seem like a good idea, in such delicate situation as this. IT would be better to let Dral be unless he started to act erratically.

* * *

Sabine and Kira

"Sit." Kira instructed to Sabine as she gestured to a chair.

Taking it, Sabine thought to ask what she wanted to talk about, but decided against it. Given what they had seen of her so far, she'd just silence her and tell her what she wanted to hear any way.

"I know what hunt's you Sabine Wren." Kira said in her raspy whisper.

"I don't…"

"The Empire's creation, I know it's hunting you and your friends, but it is looking for you."

"How can you know that?" That last part was news to her.

"I know things…. I can sense him and even see through his eyes at times."

That was scary to Sabine, the ability to spy through someone's eye's across the galaxy was something she knew many people would kill to be able to do.

"Listen to me Sabine Wren, that man, I don't know what you know of his past, but he's coming here after you, he's driven to seek you out, but he can't control the desire to kill the Empire has programmed into him, he will kill you if he can't be stopped."

"He's clear across the galaxy right now, and I don't think he can properly operate a ship."

"There are other ways Sabine Wren, and he'll find you." She paused for a moment "But this brings me to the real the reason why I approved you for you attempt at the trials."

"Wait." Sabine held up a hand "You mean you wouldn't have normally?"

"No, all three of you are full on internal conflict, especially Dral Rahm, but I need you for something."

"What?" she asked hesitantly, not really liking this line of conversation.

"The man seeking you, when he arrives, I need to too capture him for me?"

This caused Sabine heart rate to spike, not only was that an incredibly dangerous request, but she now knew that JV-Fr13 was in fact her little brother, or rather half-brother, the idea of capturing him and turning him over to any one caused her blood to boil.

"Do you even know who he is ! Who he was? He's not just some mindless lab project for you to capture and experiment on!" She didn't quite shout but she did raise her voice.

Kira didn't react at first, just staring at her "You misunderstand me Sabine Wren, I don't wish to experiment on or enslave him. I've told you I can sense him and see through his eye, and I can tell he's dying."

"What?" Sabine was not only alarmed but confused, Jaden had seemed pretty much indestructible every time they encountered him. How could he be dying?

"You can't inflict all those augmentations onto a living being without some side effects Sabine Wren, it can't been seen yet, but his body is starting to break down, his regenerating abilities keep it at bay for now, but soon it will over power him and he'll start to decomposed alive."

That sounded horrible to Sabine, rotting alive, but Kira was incredibly well informed on Jaden's condition "How can you know all this?"

"When I'm seeing thing through him, I can feel what's happening in his body, sense the damage. Capture him, and the witches can heal him, or we believe we can."

Now that confused Sabine, they came seeking help, and she would consider them good people in general. Jaden, despite being an innocent bystander, was extremely dangerous and would surly have inner conflict.

"Why heal him? I mean, wouldn't he have to do trails or prove himself?"

"For outsiders yes, but family of clan is afforded rite's without trials if they are in a condition that would make the trials impossible to do, such as this case."

"Family!?" Jaden was related to someone in the clan? She knew she and Jaden shared different mothers, but this was a bizarre coincidence that not only would they come to the planet Jaden's mother was from but contact the exact clan.

"Yes, it how I can sense him and how he can follow you."

"Wait….."

"Yes, Jaden is my son, my little boy, betrayed by his father and mutilated by the Empire. My son, my little boy, your little brother, you and your companions will help me save him."

* * *

AN: Okay tell me what you think.


	16. Chapter 15

AN: This chapter was hard to right. I lost my brother recently, and the character of Dral was inspired in part by him, and now I'm having a hard time writing his character.

But I don't want to burden you guys with my problems, here's the next chapter, it's a bit longer than previous chapters.

Chapter 15

* * *

Sabine's head was reeling. Sitting in front of her was a woman, whom until a few days ago didn't know existed in the abstract concept of someone her father had a relationship with. In that time frame she had found out about her little brother, his fate and her father's hand in it, and now meet the woman who birthed him.

She had a million questions she wanted to ask her, about her father, where he was , why he'd done what he'd done, but the first thing she asked was.

"What was Jaden like….before."

Kira looked her dead in the eye, and for a minute Sabine didn't think she would answer her, but then she spoke.

"Before I sent him to live his father…your father, he was a very quiet boy, but he was a good boy. Always did what I asked him to, never complained, and he smiled, that's what I remember most about him, he smiled, all the time…." With that she voice faded off and her stare drifted away from Sabine.

For a moment Sabine thought she was just lost in thought, but then her eye's snapped back to her, and Sabine asked the other question that was gnawing at her. "Why send him away?"

For the briefest moment Sabine thought she saw tears in Kira's eyes, but it looked to disappear as quickly as it appeared.

"The Witches of Dathomir are matriarchal society Sabine, I know the outside galaxy, out there, with his father, I thought he'd have a chance at something more than a second rate citizen, I wish I had never sent him away, but now I have a chance to make it right."

Sabine didn't know if Kira knew it or not, but she had help Sabine kill two birds with one stone. Jaden's fate had been worrying her ever sense she had found out his identity. Now, there was hope.

* * *

Back at Village Square

Ezra watch Dral as he attempted to grab a fence post, and watch his hand close on open air. It took him a moment for him to realize he was trying figure out depth perception with a missing eye. Ezra would have thought it was funny if it weren't for the fact of how badly Dral was beaten up at this point. His eye and two of his fingers were gone, not to mention a plethora of other injuries.

The guy was crass and a bit of blowhard, but not really all that bad if he thought about. His hygiene could use some work though, he didn't seem to care as much about be clean as the crew of the Ghost. He didn't know if it was just because he really didn't care, got used to being alone or just didn't realize what he smelled like.

He continued to watch Dral make another attempt to grab the fence and this time succeed. Dral gave out a quiet "Hah!" victory, and for some reason he couldn't explain, that made Ezra smile.

Ezra continued to watch Dral for some time as he tried to figure out his depth perception, until the return of Sabine, along with Kira drew his attention away.

Kira spoke to the crew of the Ghost, Urai, and Dral "You three." She said in a voice much louder than the one she spoke with in the tent, causing everyone who wasn't already looking at her to turn their eyes on her. Ezra knew who she meant by "you three" and walked to her, and heard Dral follow behind him.

"I've decided to give you the opportunity to prove yourself," she gestured to another witch "Follow sister Seyda, she will take you to the trial ground, I must speak with your leaders."

Ezra looked to Kanan for support, but Kanan nodded "Go on Ezra, we'll be here, don't worry."

As he and Dral made their way to meet up with Sabine Kira spoke "Good luck, don't make me look bad in front of the elders."

He wanted to ask her what she meant but decided it would be best to just move as quickly as possible in this situation and follow the witch Seyda.

* * *

On the path to the Trail Grounds

"You three will face one of three trails at the ground, Trial of the Mind, Trial of the Sword or Trial of the Soul." Seyda said as she lead them through the village.

"Well which one?" Dral asked from the rear of the group.

"That will be up to chance, the power of fate and destiny control all of us, and they control your fate today as well."

"Great…."Ezra muttered to himself. He could only guess what each trial meant, but if he had to choose he bet Trail of the Sword would be there best bet.

They continued to walk on through the village, until the housing became more and more sparse, until their weren't any dwelling left and they approached a large leveled dirt field, looking to be a perfect square about fifty feet long on each side. While it was dirt field, rocks still were strewn about it, varying in size from pebbles to near human size, as if they didn't want the field to look to unnatural.

What looked like a dozen woman were lined up on the side they were now approaching, all looking like shadows do to the large fire they had built behind, Ezra didn't exactly feel comfortable at this. These weren't run of the mill people, the Witches of Dathomir were famed in the galaxy as second only to Jedi and Sith in force abilities.

What looked like to be the leader of the group stepped forward and held up, what looked like to Ezra, three identical spheres." Each of these contains a different chemical that will cause the fire to change color." She proclaimed to them holding them out to them. "Green is trail by Mind, Red is Trail by Sword, and Blue Trial by Soul. Whatever color the fire become will determine what trail you will face." She said before she started to shuffle the balls in her hand.

"Don't exactly stand on ceremony do they?" Dral whispered in Ezra's ear. It wasn't really funny, but Ezra cracked a smile as the witch selected a sphere and tossed it into the fire.

For a second Ezra held his breath as the fire crackled, then in a flash of sparks it flared up and turned a brilliant, almost unnatural shade of red.

* * *

"Trail by sword." The witch proclaimed, becoming them forward.

Dral looked over the witches, licking his lip compulsively, they felt dry to him despite the humidity. He was going to bet Trail by Sword didn't involve puzzle solving or finding a hidden treasure. He wasn't afraid of a fight, but he was hardly in top condition, mentally or physically for any sort of real exertion. Truth be told Sabine didn't seem in top form mentally either, as it stood only Ezra was going to be in top condition. If it was one on one fight and nothing else, he was going to volunteer Ezra for it. He may not like it, but that stood as their best chance.

The witch who had been speaking spoke again "Each of you now must face trail by sword, or trial by combat. Two of you must best our warriors in single combat"

Dral cursed inwardly, he wasn't in the mood to get his head kicked it.

She spoke again "Our warriors will draw lots to determine who will face whom." She gestured to the assembled warrior behind her. The effect of the blood red fire was casting them in a sinister light, and while he would go to his grave before he admitted it but it made his blood run cold.

* * *

The warriors all drew small wooden disk from a bowl. Sabine didn't know the exact rules of this ritual, but she didn't like they were excluded from the act, even if it was still left to chance.

From the looks of it, Sabine could guess the three that had been picked. One looked older than the other two, and while the facial tattoo's made her a bit hard to place age wise, Sabine would have guessed she was about forty standard years old. The second Sabine would have guessed to be in her thirties, she looked more worn out than the other two, like she experienced more physical hardship than the other two. The last was the youngest looking, maybe a little younger than Kanan, but more wild in her appearance and body language than the other two, she walked back and forth like a predator ready to hunt.

That one made Sabine nervous. She didn't believe these battle would be lethal in nature, although she had no solid reason to think that, but that one looked like a number of people she'd seen in her life, here eye's reminded her of those people. They the eyes of a killer.

* * *

The haggard looking warrior stepped forward.

"Sabine Wren, you will face Malani."

Then the oldest of the three chosen warriors stopped forward while the elder spoke.

"Ezra Bridger, you will face Orcina." She said gesturing towards the woman.

Dral cursed under his breath, he knew who he got, and she looked like the hardest killer of the three, the youngest maybe, but her eyes were of someone who loved to fight.

"Dral Rahm." The elder said the youngest and wildest looking warrior stepped forward "you will face Siliri."

He looked at her scowling, and she just smiled at him, then winked at him.

She was very attractive, Dral could say that objectively, and most men might be flustered by this, but Dral just started to grind his teeth, she thought he was going down quick and easy. What really irritated him, she was probably right. He had no depth perception, could hardly use one hand and had a litany of other injuries that hadn't fully healed.

"Sabine…Ezra." He said in a whisper, and both turned to look at him "You two better win, cause that one there." He said gesturing at Silri "she's gonna take me apart."

* * *

"You'll have fifteen minutes to prepare. You may choose a weapon from our arsenal, or use your own." The Elder said while gesturing to a weapons rack of primitive looking staffs, blades, and clubs.

"What do you mean she'll take you apart!?" Sabine hissed under her breath at Dral, not wanting the witches to hear her concern, although she thought that might be pointless if they could feel it in the force.

"Look at me!" Dral hissed back as he headed to the weapons rack looking over his options. "I can barely see and have half a hand, look at her." He said pointing to Silri "She lives for this, I can barely function, you two are gonna have to win the first two fight's or we're done."

Sabine didn't want to agree with him out loud, but she thought he was right. In his current state Sabine didn't think Dral could beat any one of the warriors put forward.

So she kept her silence and looked to the other side of the arena. The three warrior where doing warm up exercises with their weapons. Her opponent Malani, had a staff with what looked like stone weights at both ends, she twirled it with grace and speed that made Sabine nervous. She could fight up close if she had to, and if she was honest with herself she was quiet good at it, but Malani was clearly above her in that regard.

Her strategy was simple in theory, but not necessarily easy to pull off. She fought at range, and she needed to keep her at that distance. As she thought the elder approached them.

"I must ask you all, if you have energy based weapons, to set them to stun or turn down the intensity, this is not a death match."

The made Sabine feel better before she realized it was a death match in a way. If they lost, they were as good as dead.

Adjusting her blasters, Sabine turned back to watch the witches warm up, she watched as the whipping light spring from Silri's hand and whip threw the air and cut her target in half, followed up by a powerful force blast the sent the two piece flying.

"Holy Crap!" Dral cried out "She' not allowed to do that in the fight is she?!"

The elder turned to look at Dral. "No, she is not."

* * *

Malani and Sabine stepped into the field. Sabine wasn't sure what the procedure was exactly, but she kept her eyes on the elder for a sign to start, but her eye's kept shifting towards Malani. She wanted to tag her as soon as she could in order to keep her way, if she closed the distance this fight would get much harder.

Suddenly the elder shouted "Begin!"

Malani charged her with speed Sabine was not expecting, but she still fired several stun bolts at Malani. That's when Sabine remembered this was force user, her senses where enhanced, at long rang she probably wasn't hit her, she needed a different strategy and fast.

Sabine ducked just in time to avoid the blow to the head. She could feel it wiz over her head, ruffling her hair. But she got no respite, as Malani swung and jabbed her staff at her. She was preternaturally fast and her movements were fluid, it was like every strike built upon the one preceding it, making it almost impossible for Sabine to find and opening.

She made a few attempts to get a couple shots off but Malani kept knocking her blaster to the side and her shot kept going wide.

This wasn't working, sooner or later Malani was going to land a hit with her staff and with the stones on the end, it would probably be all she needed. It wouldn't kill her, but it would injure her badly enough that she couldn't fight.

But something was starting to dawn on her. Malani wasn't as young her, and the earliest signs of fatigue were starting to show. Her style of attack was incredibly high energy, there was no way she could keep up at the current pace she was setting for herself. But what was more, Sabine didn't feel any exhaustion at all. Not low levels, none at all. That shouldn't be possible, even with her youth, training and adrenaline pumpng she should at least feel something.

As she dodged another strike aimed at her head she realized what it was. The drug Tyber had given her, Ezra and Dral. It optimized the human body, curing all disease and making the body function more effectively. It was keeping her body from experiencing exhaustion.

Ironic that very thing they were trying undo was helping them undo it. But now her path was clear, keep dodging, let Malani wear herself out enough to where she could get a decisive attack in.

That's what she did, duck, dodged and slip attacks from the witch. She couldn't tell how much time had passed, but then she saw it. Malani slipped, nothing major, just a minor loss of footing, if she had blinked she would have missed it, but it was what she had been waiting for.

Taking aim at leg she saw slip, Sabine let loose a quick volley of blasts at Malani's feet. Sabine could see the sudden switch in tactics had caught Malani off guard, and she slipped again.

Pressing her chance, Sabine fired at shot at Malani's center of mass, but the Witch was still quick, and managed to block it with her staff, but even on low intensity it still burned the wood of the staff. She shot a few more times, again Malani blocked with her staff, but the word was starting to smoke.

Another three volleys and the staff broke it two, smoking where it the heat had caused the wood to splinter. The burning smell reached Sabine' nose just as Malani switch fighting stances. Now holding one half of the broken staff in each hand, the look of real concern crossed her face for the first time sense the fight had started.

Sabine knew she was in a good place, she felt perfectly fresh, Malani was getting tired and she had pushed her opponent into a secondary fighting style.

Malani attacked again, but this looked much less coordinated than her earlier attacks, and Sabine slipped the swings of the broken staff and took the opportunity to kick her opponent squarely in the diaphragm.

As Malani doubled over, winded from the attack, Sabine leveled her blasted at her head, and shot a bolt squarely into her forehead.

Had her blaster's power not be turned down, this would of come off as a rather ruthless and brutal execution. But as it was, Malani just collapsed to the ground in pain.

Sabine was so keyed up that she almost attacked again, but the elder over seeing fight shouted to stop.

"Sabine Wren wins." She said as Malani got up and walked back towards the other Witches.

"Ezra Bridger, come forward." She called out.

* * *

Orcina stepped into the arena as Ezra made to enter, before Sabine stopped him.

"Ezra, listen, drag the fight out as long you can, that stuff Tyber drugged with, I think it's improving out stamina, I don't feel tired at all."

Ezra looked at her questioningly, but before he could ask for clarification for her thoughts the elder called him again.

Stepping into the area, Ezra Noted Orcina's weapons, they were either daggers or short sword, and he didn't know if that was good or bad. He himself was trained in sword fighting, but she looked older than Kanan, she may be better at it than his teacher. But she wasn't in her prime anymore, that he was sure of. Granted she didn't look that old, middle aged maybe, but if Sabine was right he just had to tire her out. With that in mind, Ezra charged, igniting his lightsaber.

* * *

It didn't take Sabine more than half a second to groan at Ezra's choice of tactics. She told him he wouldn't get tired, but rather than doing what she did and letting her opponent come at her and waste energy on attacks, Ezra looked like he planned to batter Orcina's defenses until she just broke.

The problem with that is Sabine, and Ezra by extension, didn't know if the effects of the drug would extended vigorous activity.

* * *

Ezra couldn't help but think if he had his saber set to full power that the blades Orcina was using to block his attacks would be lying in pieces right now. But as it stood, she kept blocking or deflecting his attacks.

It wouldn't be long, or so he thought, before she started to fatigue, then he could go for the winning shot.

He had her on the ropes, and he was sure before long he'd end this.

Glancing back towards Sabine and Dral to see the looks on their faces. Dral was still scowling, but Sabine look concerned, that puzzled Ezra for a second before he felt a bolt of pain shoot up his arm.

With a shock of horror, he realized he'd let himself get distracted, and Orcina hand hit him hard on the wrist. If the blades hadn't been blunt, he would of lost his hand, as it stood now, he was pretty sure she had dislocated something.

What was worse he'd dropped his lightsaber.

Reaching out with the force to try pull it into his other and, before he could he felt a blazing pain in his temple, then it all went dark.

* * *

"Ezra, wake up…come on get up." The voice said.

Ezra opening his eye's, everything looked cloudy as he saw Sabine over him.

"Did I win?"

Instead of answering him, she smacked him in the side of his head, sending another bolt of pain through him.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"You lost! And it was because you let yourself get distracted!" Sabine hissed at him.

Ezra didn't answer, but he knew she was right. He could have won that fight, what's more he should have won. But he didn't take it as seriously as he should of, and now, they had to rely on Dral, who on his best day might not be able to win.

* * *

Dral was breathing heavily, his nerves were off the charts. He was going into this fight crippled, with a weapon he didn't really know how to use, again a blood thirsty woman.

"Dral." Sabine said into his ear. "Let her come at you, just focus on dodging."

Not great advice, Dral thought to himself, he wasn't exactly the most nibble guy in the galaxy, but the drug would help keep him from tiring. He still hurt from his more severe injuries, but he supposed without that poison in his system, he might not even be able to walk.

Although if it wasn't in him in the first place, he wouldn't be here.

Hefting the weapon he'd picked, a hammer, he walked into the area as Silri steeped in. Her weapon, a whip, not the energy one she used to split the dummy in half, but a normal one, was in her hand.

She was smiling at him. He felt his stomach drop out of him.

* * *

She was on him before he knew what happened and the whip wrapped around the hammer he was holding and jerked it out of his hand before he knew what happened.

As his weapon soared out of the arena, Dral heard the whip lashing back at him. He tried to dodge it, but felt it wrap tight around his ankle. Before he could think of what to do, he was on his back, groaning.

Even before he could catch his breath, Silri's weapon cam lashing back towards him. Dral rolled and this time he heard it cracked just to his right.

Continuing his rolling on the ground as lash after lash came in at him.

Well, he was dodging, just like Sabine suggested. Only know he didn't have a weapon, and he wasn't going to get close to her.

He needed some space, put some distance between him and that whip.

Just as it cracked near his ear, Dral Jumped to his feet and tried to back pedal, but this time he felt the whip wrap tight around his fore arm. Before he was yanked forward, he looked up into Silri's face, and she was smiling like a maniac. She was having the time of her life.

* * *

Ezra was running his hand over his head in frustration. Dral was right, he was getting picked apart, Silri was playing with him at this point. He winced as Silri clubbed Dral in the stomach with the handle of her whip.

This was it, they were going to lose. Why had he let himself get distracted? He could have won, then they wouldn't be in this mess. What's more, Dral wouldn't be getting knocked around this sadist.

They were going to have to try and find another way to get the cure.

* * *

Sabine wasn't sure how long Dral had been fighting, but he wasn't going down. She wasn't sure how much of it was the drug and how much of it was Dral's natural toughness, but he wasn't going down.

Then again Silri was clearly playing with him, so she may not be actively trying to end the fight like the other two Witches.

She sighed as Dral made a wild swing at Silri, who side stepped it with all the concern of some avoiding a bug, and wrapped her whip around his arm.

Taking control his movement, she threw him to him knees. It looked like she was saying something to him, Sabine couldn't hear what she was saying, but Dral's response was totally unexpected.

* * *

On his knees, Dral looked up into Silri's face. His left arm was tied up with the whip, and currently twisted into and angle to keep him from standing up.

"Dral Rahm, you are a surprising resilient opponent, submit and I won't have to really hurt you."

Dral looked at her, with pure rage on his face. She could have knocked him out if she wanted, the few times she hit him that that handle was enough to make him certain of that. She wanted to humiliate him as well as dominate him.

He spoke to her, but whispered it.

"What was that? Do you give up?" She said, smirking.

He said it again, and again she could hear.

"Speak up, if you don't, this farce of a fight will continue."

He said something again, and still she didn't hear it, and she leaned in close to his mouth, turning her head to nearly press her ear to his mouth.

"Screw you." He whispered, and before she could react, Dral swung with all his might, and punched Silri squarely between the legs.

* * *

Sabine couldn't believe what she just saw. She was sure it was a trick of angles and light, there was no way he just did that.

But Silri's reaction, doubling over her hands clutching the area Dral had punched. Sabine had hed been attacked there before, she knew that would really hurt a man but to try it on a woman that was clearly the act of a desperate man.

At this point she didn't care, it was the first forward movement in the fight, she'd take what she could get.

* * *

The look on Silri's face read as a person who just couldn't believe what had just happened. It was probably just as much shock as it was pain that caused her to let him go of him. At any rate he was certain he's knocked the wind out of her for a moment.

Before she could recover, he groped around on the ground, and found what he was looking. Grabbing a stone about twice the size of his fist, he spun around on Silri, who through pain and shock had not gotten over the fact the Dral has punched her between the legs.

Taking the stone in hand Dral swung it at hard as he could at the side of Silri's head.

With a sickening 'thunk', the stone made contact with the side of her head, and she fell to her side motionless.

Looking at her Dral dropped the stone, looked at the elders. "I win."

He said as he walked back to Sabine and Ezra.

* * *

"That was dirty move." Ezra said as Dral got back.

"It worked didn't it?" Dral snapped.

"I'm not complaining, just….man talk about quick thinking."

Dral looked at Sabine, she just looked at him and said "I can't believe you did that."

Before he could ask for clarification, the elders approached them.

"Despite your….questionable methods, you have won, you have earned your chance."

* * *

AN: Okay, tell me what you think.


End file.
